Shillong, Aug 13: The District Council Affairs (DCA) department will consult the State Law Department on the Khasi Social Custom of Lineage (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 of the Khasi Hill Autonomous District Council (KHADC).

The State government is yet to send back the Bill to the Governor, Ganga Prasad after the Bill was referred by the Governor to the State government for its views and opinions.

“The Bill is still with the state government. The DCA will soon write to the Law department to request it to give its views,” sources said.

The KHADC had passed the Khasi Social Custom of Lineage (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 on July 25. The second Amendment Bill sought to strip off the Scheduled Tribe status and other privileges if a Khasi woman marries a non-Khasi man, and her children will be also denied the benefits.

KHADC chief executive member, H.S. Shylla had indicated that the Executive Committee may write to the state government to request it to return both the first Amendment Bill, 2015 and the second Amendment Bill to further fine tune the Bill.

According to Shylla, if the second Amendment Bill is returned to the Council, the Executive Committee may refer the second Amendment Bill to a consultative committee being headed by former KHADC CEM, Manstudy Nongrem.