The Inner Line Regulation Commission of the Naga Students Federation (NSF) has raised serious concerns over what it described as a “prolonged systemic failure” in the enforcement of the Inner Line Pass (ILP) system in Nagaland, following the recent detection of hundreds of defaulters during intensified checking drives.
In a statement issued on Monday, the NSF Commission stated that the recent detection of ILP violators by Nagaland Police is “not an indicator of effective enforcement” but a clear exposure of “prolonged systemic failure”.
It stated that the identification of 436 defaulters on April 10 and 208 on April 11 indicates that a significant number of non-indigenous individuals have been residing, working, and even operating businesses in Nagaland without valid ILPs for extended periods of time.
“This is not a law-and-order success—it is evidence of how deeply enforcement has failed over time,” it said.
Clarifying the legal framework, the Commission emphasized that the correct terminology is “Inner Line Pass” and not “permit,” as commonly misused. It noted that the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 explicitly uses the term “Pass,” which signifies a restrictive and conditional mechanism designed to regulate entry into protected areas. The use of the term “permit,” it stated, trivializes the seriousness of the regulation and has contributed to a dilution in both its intent and enforcement of the law.
The NSF Commission further said the scale of violations now being revealed raises serious concerns regarding how such large numbers of individuals were allowed to reside and participate in economic activities without valid ILPs.
“It is evident that many of these defaulters were not recent entrants but had already embedded themselves within local economic systems, directly impacting local livelihoods while operating outside the legal framework. What is being uncovered today is not a sudden violation, but a long-standing normalization of illegality,” the statement said.
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Stating that accountability for this situation must be clearly acknowledged, the NSF Commission held district administrations, labour departments, trade licensing authorities, and municipal and town councils accountable for failing to incorporate ILP verification into routine regulatory processes.
“Enforcement cannot remain reactive or limited to occasional drives; it must be continuous, institutionalized, and verifiable. A regulatory system that is enforced only in phases is, in effect, not being enforced at all,” it said.
In this regard, the NSF Commission proposed a series of structural reforms aimed at strengthening the ILP system. These include mandatory linkage of ILP verification with business licensing and employment processes, establishment of a centralized and digitized ILP database for real-time verification, and the introduction of clear accountability mechanisms where enforcement lapses have occurred.
“Unless enforcement becomes systemic, violations will continue to become structural,” it added.
The NSF Commission further stated that the Inner Line Pass is not a symbolic safeguard, but a legal instrument of protection. “Its dilution, whether through weak enforcement or casual interpretation, has real consequences,” it said adding, “The question is no longer whether violation exist, but how long they have been allowed to persist unchecked and who is responsible for that failure.”
