62Provisions as to Provisional Legislative Assembly

(1) Until the Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya has been duly constituted and summoned to meet for the first session under the provisions of Part III, there shall be a Provisional Legislative Assembly which shall consist of not less than thirty-five and not more than fifty-five persons as the Central Government may, after consultation with the Election Commission, by order, determine, and such persons shall be elected in the manner specified in sub-section (2).

(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (1), the members of the Provisional Legislative Assembly shall be elected in the following manner, namely:—

(a) there shall be an electoral college for each autonomous district within Meghalaya which shall consist of the elected members of the District Council thereof, and each electoral college shall elect such number of persons to the Provisional Legislative Assembly as the President may, after consultation with the Election Commission, by order, determine;

(b) the election of members to the Provisional Legislative Assembly shall be in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and shall be subject to such rules as the Central Government may, after consultation with the Election Commission, make in this behalf.

(3) The Central Government may nominate to the Provisional Legislative Assembly not more than three persons not being persons in the service of the Government, to represent any minority communities in Meghalaya which, in its opinion, need representation in the Assembly.

(4) No person shall be qualified to be chosen as a member of the Provisional Legislative Assembly unless he is a person whose name is for the time being entered in the electoral roll for so much of any constituency of the Legislative Assembly of Assam as is comprised within Meghalaya and is not less than twenty-five years of age.

(5) If owing to death, resignation or otherwise, the office of a member of the Provisional Legislative Assembly falls vacant, it may be filled up as soon as practicable under and in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section.

(6) The term of office of the members of the Provisional Legislative Assembly shall expire immediately before the first meeting of the Legislative Assembly duly constituted under this Act.

(7) The election by the electoral college under this section shall not be called in question on the ground merely of the existence of a vacancy in the membership of any District Council forming part of the electoral college.

(8) The Provisional Legislative Assembly constituted under this section shall, for so long it is in existence, be deemed to be the Legislative Assembly duly constituted under this Act, and accordingly the provisions of Part III shall, so far as may be, apply in relation to the Provisional Legislative Assembly as they apply in relation to the Legislative Assembly.