Special Provisions for Manipur under Article 371C

Article 371C provides a special constitutional arrangement for administering Manipur's hill areas through legislative representation and oversight. Its central mechanism is a committee of the State Legislative Assembly comprising members elected from those areas, supported by provisions concerning the Governor and Union supervision.

Presidential order and the hill areas committee

Article 371C(1) empowers the President to establish the arrangement by order, notwithstanding other provisions of the Constitution.

• The President may provide for the constitution and functions of a committee of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, consisting of Assembly members elected from the hill areas.
• The committee provides an institutional channel for representatives of the hill areas within the State Legislature, rather than creating a separate legislature.
• For this article, Hill Areas means the areas that the President declares to be hill areas by order; the constitutional definition therefore depends on presidential designation.

Procedural safeguards and the Governor's responsibility

The arrangement links hill-area representation with procedures intended to enable the committee to function properly.

• The presidential order may modify the rules of business of the State Government and the rules of procedure of the Legislative Assembly.
• Such modifications may include a special responsibility of the Governor to secure the committee's proper functioning.
• The article leaves the committee's detailed functions and the necessary procedural arrangements to the presidential order rather than listing them exhaustively in the constitutional text.

Reporting to the President and Union directions

Article 371C(2) adds a supervisory mechanism concerning the administration of the hill areas.

• The Governor must report to the President annually, or whenever the President requires, regarding the administration of Manipur's hill areas.
• The Union's executive power extends to giving directions to the State concerning the administration of those areas.
• The overall mechanism combines representation within the Assembly, responsibility for the committee's functioning, and Union oversight of hill-area administration.