ST LIST - POLITY
News: Centre
introduces Bills to modify ST list in four States
What's in the news?
● The
Government introduced four Bills that seek to modify the Scheduled Tribes list
in the four States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
in the Lok Sabha, via amendments proposed in the Constitution (Scheduled
Tribes) Order, 1950.
Key takeaways:
● The
Bill seeks to add the Narikoravan and
Kuruvikkaran hill tribes to the ST list of Tamil Nadu. The demand for their
inclusion dates to before 1965 and even the Lokur Committee had in its report
of that year recommended its inclusion.
● The
Government also moved a bill to introduce Betta-Kuruba
as a synonym for the already categorized Kadu kuruba in the ST list of Karnataka. It also moved a bill to add
a number of synonyms in Devnagri script for the already categorized Bhariya
Bhumia tribe in the ST list of Chhattisgarh.
● The
Hattee community of Sirmaur
district’s Trans-Giri region was added to the ST list of Himachal Pradesh - a demand pending for almost five decades.
How are tribes added into the ST list?
● Scheduled
Castes are specified under the provisions of Article 341 of the Constitution of India. Government has laid down
Modalities for deciding claims for inclusion in, exclusion from and other
modifications in the list of Scheduled Castes.
● Article 342
specifies tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal
communities that are deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or
UT.
● In
accordance with these provisions, the list of Scheduled Tribes is notified for
each State or Union Territory.
● These
lists are only valid within the
jurisdiction of that State or UT.
● A
community designated as a Scheduled Tribe in one state does not have to be so
in another.
Article 342:
● The
President may, with respect to any
State or Union territory, and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification,
specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or
tribal communities which shall, for the purposes of this constitution, is
deemed to be scheduled tribes in relation to that state or Union Territory, as
the case may be.
● Parliament
may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled tribes specified in
a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of
or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid, a
notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent
notification.
● Thus,
the first specification of Scheduled Tribes in relation to a particular State/
Union Territory is by a notified order of the President, after consultation
with the State governments concerned. These
orders can be modified subsequently only through an Act of Parliament.
Inclusion procedure:
● Adding
tribes to the ST list begins with a recommendation
from the respective state governments.
● These
recommendations are then forwarded to
the Tribal Affairs Ministry, who reviews them and forwards them to the Registrar
General of India for approval.
● The
list is then approved by the National
Commission for Scheduled Tribes before being sent to the Cabinet for a
final decision.