Meghalaya Government has appointed retired justice Mool Chand Garg, former judge of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, to head an expert committee tasked with reviewing the Meghlaya’s state’s reservation policy.
Justice Garg has previously led a commission that investigated the rice scam within the state.
The committee’s members include individuals such as Dr. Satish Chandra, a retired justice from the Allahabad High Court and an expert in constitutional law; DV Kumar, a professor from the Department of Sociology at NEHU; Chander Shekhar, a professor specializing in fertility and social demography at the India Institute of Population Sciences in Mumbai; and Shubhadip Mukherjee, an assistant professor of economics and public policy at IIM, Shillong.
Charged with completing their work within 12 months, the committee’s terms of reference encompass the examination of the existing reservation policy and the proposal of any necessary modifications.
Additionally, the committee will undertake comprehensive consultations with all stakeholders and conduct visits to various locations across the state to gather input from these stakeholders.
In response to inquiries about the absence of indigenous members on the panel, Meghalaya cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh clarified that this decision was made to avoid bias, as the subject matter directly pertains to the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo communities.