Naga tribal woman moves SC against her ex-communication

An elderly Naga tribal woman and an RTI activist has been ex-communicated by her village council for she made too many inconvenient queries under the transparency law to get details of how government funds were spent.

Zeneisule Ate Loucii from Zhamida filed a petition before the Supreme Court on Friday seeking quashing of the “illegal resolution” passed by Zhamida Village Council on December 14, 2014. Her petition, filed through advocate P George Giri, claimed the council threatened to kill her if she failed to comply with the resolution. The council is elected by the village. The woman said excommunicating a person from a village was “untouchability,” which is prohibited under Article 17 of the Constitution. Loucii fled the village after the resolution.

Taking note of her petition, a bench headed by justice Vikramjit Sen issued notice to the Nagaland government and the council.

Loucii submitted the resolution restrained her from talking with anyone in the village, prohibited her to stay, eat or drink in the village and also stopped other villagers from talking to her.

“The Zhadima Village Council passed a resolution that the petitioner to be excommunicated from the village and if she still continues to speak, to be finished off her life. The reason for this excommunication is that she is enquiring about the utilization of various funds granted by the Centre such as MGNREGA and enlightening about the rights of the villagers and fights against the corruption,” the petition stated.

“The law does not give the right to chop off the head of anyone, or to excommunicate anyone. The village council is to follow rule of law and not to violate rule of law,” read Loucii’s petition.

The reason for this ex-communication is that she is enquiring about the utilisation of various funds granted by the Centre such as MGNREGA and enlightening the villagers about their rights PETITION FILED BY HER LAWYER