Indian Polity Quiz: Scheduled and Tribal Areas (Fifth and Sixth Schedules)

The correct answer is A, prevention of transfer of tribal land to non-tribals. Paragraph 5(2) of the Fifth Schedule allows the Governor of a State to make regulations for the peace and good government of a Scheduled Area, and expressly permits regulations that prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of Scheduled Tribes. Protection of land is therefore the direct legal consequence of a Fifth Schedule declaration. B is wrong because local self-government in Scheduled Areas comes from the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, and not from the declaration itself; the Schedule only sets up an advisory Tribes Advisory Council. C is wrong because a Scheduled Area remains part of the State concerned, whose executive power continues to extend to it, while a Union Territory is created by Parliament under Article 3. D is wrong because Special Category Status was an arrangement of the erstwhile National Development Council for devolution of central assistance and has no connection with the Fifth Schedule.

The correct answer is B, the Fifth Schedule. Regulations made by the Governor under paragraph 5(2) of the Fifth Schedule can prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of Scheduled Tribes, and a transfer made in breach of such a regulation is void. State land transfer regulations framed under this power are what courts rely on when they set aside leases of tribal land to private mining companies in Scheduled Areas. A is wrong because the Third Schedule only contains the forms of oath and affirmation for ministers, legislators, judges and the Comptroller and Auditor General. C is wrong because the Ninth Schedule, added by the First Amendment in 1951, lists laws, mainly land reform laws, placed beyond challenge on the ground of violation of fundamental rights. D is wrong because the Twelfth Schedule, added by the 74th Amendment, lists the eighteen functions of urban local bodies.

The correct answer is C, ten States. PESA applies to the Scheduled Areas of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan, and these ten States must bring their Panchayati Raj laws in line with it. The number follows from the Fifth Schedule itself, because PESA extends Part IX of the Constitution only to areas declared Scheduled Areas by presidential order. A and B are wrong because they leave out States that clearly have Scheduled Areas, such as Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan; several new Fifth Schedule States, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in 2000 and Telangana in 2014, were carved out of older ones and inherited their Scheduled Areas. D is wrong because the four North-Eastern States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram fall under the Sixth Schedule and are outside PESA altogether.

The correct answer is C, Arunachal Pradesh. The Sixth Schedule, read with Article 244(2), covers the tribal areas of only four States, namely Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Arunachal Pradesh has no autonomous district council under this Schedule; its tribal population is protected instead by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873, under which outsiders need an Inner Line Permit, and by its own panchayat arrangements. A is wrong because Meghalaya has three councils for the Khasi Hills, the Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills. B is wrong because Mizoram has councils for the Chakma, Lai and Mara areas. D is wrong because Assam has the Bodoland Territorial Council along with the Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao councils, and Article 244A even allows Parliament to form an autonomous State within Assam.

The correct answer is B, Article 244(1). It states that the provisions of the Fifth Schedule shall apply to the administration and control of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in any State other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, while Article 244(2) applies the Sixth Schedule to the tribal areas of those four States. Both clauses sit in Part X of the Constitution, titled Scheduled and Tribal Areas. A is wrong because Article 243 is the definition clause of Part IX on panchayats. C is wrong because Article 245 deals with the territorial extent of laws made by Parliament and State legislatures. D is wrong because Article 246 distributes legislative subjects between the Union and the States through the three lists of the Seventh Schedule. Remember the pair 244(1) for the Fifth Schedule and 244(2) for the Sixth.

The correct answer is B, the President of India. Paragraph 6 of the Fifth Schedule says that the President may by order declare an area to be a Scheduled Area, and may increase or decrease its area, alter its boundaries, rescind the declaration or make a fresh order after consulting the Governor of the State concerned. A is wrong, though it is the commonest trap: the Governor administers a Scheduled Area, reports on it every year to the President, makes regulations for it and may bar or modify the application of laws, but cannot create or abolish one. C is wrong because the declaration is an executive order and not an Act of Parliament; Parliament does legislate for such areas, as it did through PESA. D is wrong because the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, a constitutional body under Article 338A, only investigates safeguards and advises on tribal development.

The correct answer is B, twenty members. Paragraph 4 of the Fifth Schedule requires every State with Scheduled Areas, and if the President so directs a State with Scheduled Tribes but no Scheduled Areas, to set up a Tribes Advisory Council of not more than twenty members, of whom roughly three-fourths must be representatives of Scheduled Tribes in the State legislative assembly. Its duty is to advise on matters relating to the welfare and advancement of Scheduled Tribes that the Governor refers to it, which makes it an advisory and not a law-making body. A, C and D are wrong because they confuse the figure with other numbers in this area: thirty is the maximum strength of an autonomous district council under the Sixth Schedule, of which four members are nominated by the Governor, while fifteen and twenty-five appear in no provision of either Schedule.

The correct answer is B, four. Paragraph 2 of the Sixth Schedule provides that a District Council shall consist of not more than thirty members, of whom not more than four are nominated by the Governor and the rest are elected on the basis of adult suffrage. Elected members hold office for five years from the date appointed for the first meeting of the Council, while nominated members hold office during the pleasure of the Governor. A, C and D are wrong because they alter the nominated share, which examiners test because it is the one appointed element in an otherwise elected body. Note also the related numbers: a Council may form a Regional Council for an autonomous region, its laws on land, forests and social custom require the assent of the Governor, and its grants come from the Union under Article 275(1).

The correct answer is C, 1996. Because Part IX of the Constitution does not extend of its own force to Scheduled Areas, Parliament enacted PESA in December 1996 on the recommendations of the Bhuria Committee, and made the Gram Sabha the pivot of village government in those areas, with powers over minor forest produce, minor water bodies, minor minerals, local markets, money-lending and consultation before land acquisition. A is wrong because 1992 is the year the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts were passed. B is wrong because the 73rd Amendment came into force on 24 April 1993, the date now observed as National Panchayati Raj Day. D is wrong because 2006 is the year of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, which recognises individual and community forest rights and is a different law.

The correct answer is B, Article 275(1). Its proviso directs that sums be charged on the Consolidated Fund of India as grants-in-aid to States for schemes of development approved by the Union for promoting the welfare of Scheduled Tribes and for raising the level of administration of Scheduled Areas, and it names Assam specially for the administration of its tribal areas. A is wrong because Article 270 deals with taxes levied and collected by the Union and distributed between the Union and the States. C is wrong because Article 280 provides for the Finance Commission, which recommends the sharing of taxes and the principles of grants but does not itself give them. D is wrong because Article 282 allows the Union or a State to make discretionary grants for any public purpose, which is the basis of centrally sponsored schemes rather than a tribal-specific obligation.

The correct answer is B, Assam. Article 244A, added by the Twenty-second Amendment Act of 1969, allows Parliament by law to form an autonomous State within Assam comprising all or any of the tribal areas specified in the Sixth Schedule, and to give it a legislature or a council of ministers, or both, with powers it may define. It is a provision unique to Assam, and demands for its use are still raised in the hill districts. A is wrong because Nagaland has its own special provision in Article 371A, which protects Naga customary law. C is wrong because Manipur is covered by Article 371C, dealing with a committee of the assembly for its hill areas. D is wrong because Tripura has an autonomous district council under the Sixth Schedule but no provision for an autonomous State.