Ten Elected Councils in Four Northeastern States Make Their Own Laws, Run Village Courts and Levy Taxes, and Ten Other States Give Governors Special Powers Over Scheduled Areas Under the Fifth Schedule

Ten elected councils in four northeastern states can make laws on land use, forest management, inheritance, marriage and social custom, run village courts and levy taxes. That is the Sixth Schedule, which Article 244(2) applies to Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Everywhere else Article 244(1) applies the Fifth Schedule, under which ten states have Scheduled Areas, run by the state government with special powers for the Governor and an advisory council of tribal legislators.

Parliament later added a layer for villages. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act of 24 December 1996 and the Forest Rights Act, in force from 31 December 2007, give the gram sabha, the assembly of all adult villagers, a formal say over land, minor minerals and forest. The overview of all twelve Schedules lists the states and districts.

Where the line between the two schedules falls

In 1950 the Sixth Schedule applied to Assam alone, according to the original text of Article 244 in the Constitution of India archive. The footnotes to Article 244 in the Legislative Department’s May 2022 edition date the later additions: Meghalaya on 21 January 1972, Tripura on 1 April 1985 and Mizoram on 20 February 1987.

The Fifth Schedule covers every other state that has Scheduled Areas, and paragraph 6 leaves the choice to the President: Scheduled Areas are “such areas as the President may by order declare”. The Constitution sets no test. The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) lists four criteria that have become established: a preponderance of tribal population, a compact area of reasonable size, an under-developed area and a marked disparity in the economic standard of the people. An amendment effective 7 September 1976 let the President enlarge a Scheduled Area after consulting the Governor, and rescind old orders and issue fresh ones. The Constitution’s footnotes cite orders of 1950, 1975 (Himachal Pradesh) and 1977 (Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa).

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs said on 6 December 2021 that the ten states with Scheduled Areas are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan, and that each has a Tribes Advisory Council. West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand have one too, without a notified Scheduled Area. Paragraph 4 caps a council at 20 members, about three-fourths of them tribal members of the state assembly, and its duty is to advise on tribal welfare matters the Governor refers to it. NCST adds that tribal habitations in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are under neither schedule.

What a Governor can do in a Scheduled Area

The Governor of a state with Scheduled Areas reports to the President each year on their administration, and the Union can direct the state on running them (paragraph 3). Paragraph 5 gives the Governor two tools. Under 5(1), a public notification can declare that an Act of Parliament or of the state legislature does not apply to a Scheduled Area, or applies with changes, and it can take effect retrospectively. Under 5(2), the Governor can make regulations for the area’s “peace and good government”, in particular to restrict land transfers by or among tribal members, regulate land allotment to them and regulate moneylenders who lend to them. A regulation can repeal or amend an Act. The Governor must first consult the Tribes Advisory Council, and the regulation has no effect until the President assents.

Such land protection predates the Constitution: the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act of 11 November 1908 followed the Munda rising of 1899 to 1900.

The Supreme Court has set the outer limits. On 22 April 2020 five judges decided Chebrolu Leela Prasad Rao v. State of Andhra Pradesh and struck down an order of 10 January 2000 that reserved every teaching post in the state’s Scheduled Areas for Scheduled Tribe candidates. The bench held that paragraph 5(1) lets the Governor change how an existing Act applies, that new rules come under 5(2), and that the power cannot override fundamental rights. The same judgment recalls Samatha v. State of Andhra Pradesh, decided on 11 July 1997, which held that mining leases could not go to non-tribal persons in Scheduled Areas even on government land, because the state’s power over its own property under Article 298 is subject to the Fifth Schedule. A 2002 ruling later recorded “strong reservations” about the majority view in Samatha, according to ESCR-Net’s summary of the case. The Governor’s other powers are covered in our account of the office.

What PESA 1996 gave the village assembly

Part IX of the Constitution, the chapter on panchayats added by the 73rd Amendment from 24 April 1993, says in Article 243M(1) that it does not apply to Scheduled Areas, and Article 243M(4)(b) lets Parliament extend it with changes. The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, Act 40 of 1996, is that law, and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj gives 24 December 1996 as the day it came into force.

Section 4 bars states from passing a panchayat law that is inconsistent with a set of features. State law must follow customary law, social and religious practice and the traditional management of community resources. Every village has a gram sabha of everyone on the village electoral roll, which approves plans, programmes and projects for social and economic development before the village panchayat takes them up, and selects the beneficiaries of poverty-alleviation schemes. At least half the seats in every panchayat go to Scheduled Tribes, and every chairperson’s post at every level is reserved for them. The gram sabha or panchayat must be consulted before land is acquired for a development project (4(i)). Its recommendation is mandatory before a licence or lease for minor minerals is granted (4(k)), and its prior recommendation is needed before minor-mineral concessions are auctioned (4(l)). States must also give these bodies ownership of minor forest produce, the power to prevent land alienation and restore unlawfully alienated land, and control of village markets, moneylending and intoxicants (4(m)). Section 4(o) says state legislatures “shall endeavour to follow the pattern of the Sixth Schedule” for district-level panchayats.

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj’s backgrounder of 22 December 2025 counts 77,564 villages and 22,040 panchayats under PESA, in 45 districts fully and 63 partly covered. On that date eight states (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana) had framed PESA rules, and Odisha and Jharkhand had draft rules. In Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, the Rarang Gram Panchayat harvests chilgoza pine nuts by custom, and the state’s 2011 PESA rules require the forest department to consult the gram sabha before planning a harvest.

How the Forest Rights Act works, step by step

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 is Act 2 of 2007, dated 29 December 2006, and the Government notified its commencement as 31 December 2007. Section 3(1) lists 13 rights, among them the right to live on and cultivate forest land, nistar (customary community use), ownership of and access to minor forest produce, grazing and fishing, conversion of forest villages into revenue villages, and the right to protect, regenerate and manage a community forest resource.

The rights go to forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and to other traditional forest dwellers who lived in and depended on the forest for three generations (25 years each) before 13 December 2005. Individual land is capped at the area actually occupied and four hectares. A right is heritable but cannot be sold, and until the process is complete no one can be evicted from forest land they occupy (section 4(5)).

The process starts in the village. The gram sabha receives claims, verifies them, draws a map of each recommended claim and passes a resolution (section 6(1)). A Sub-Divisional Level Committee examines it, and a District Level Committee, whose decision is final and binding, approves the record. Anyone aggrieved can petition each level within 60 days.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs report for the period ending 30 June 2026 gives the totals. Of 54,01,561 claims filed (51,86,693 individual and 2,14,868 community), 25,42,359 titles had been distributed (24,18,197 individual and 1,24,162 community), and 43,55,591 claims, 80.64 per cent, had been disposed of. Those figures imply that 18,13,232 disposed claims did not end in a title and 10,45,970 were still pending. The state tables put the forest land under titles at 2,37,91,814.78 acres, of which 1,82,90,655 acres are community titles (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir did not report extent).

The gram sabha’s role reached the Supreme Court in Orissa Mining Corporation v. Ministry of Environment and Forest. On 18 April 2013 a three-judge bench of Aftab Alam, K. S. Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi directed Odisha to place the question of bauxite mining on 660.749 hectares of forest land in Kalahandi and Rayagada before the gram sabha, which was to decide within three months. The environment ministry was then to decide on final clearance within two months in light of that decision, according to a case brief and order text hosted by Law Insider.

What a Sixth Schedule council can do

The ten autonomous districts are three in Assam (North Cachar Hills, Karbi Anglong and the Bodoland Territorial Areas District), three in Meghalaya (Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills, the country of the living root bridges), the Tripura Tribal Areas District, and three in Mizoram (Chakma, Mara and Lai). Each has a council of up to 30 members, up to four of them nominated, serving five-year terms.

Under paragraph 3 a council can legislate on allotting and using land other than reserved forest, managing forest that is not reserved, regulating jhum (shifting cultivation), village administration and police, appointing chiefs and headmen, inheritance, marriage and divorce, and social custom. These laws have no effect until the Governor assents, and the state can still acquire land for public purposes. Councils can also run primary schools, markets and roads and set the language of primary teaching (paragraph 6).

Paragraph 4 lets a council set up village courts for cases in which every party belongs to a Scheduled Tribe, and sit as the court of appeal, with only the High Court and Supreme Court above it. Under paragraph 5 the Governor can confer civil and criminal trial powers on a council or its courts, including for offences punishable with death, life imprisonment or at least five years. Paragraph 8 lets a council assess land revenue and levy taxes on land and buildings, tolls on residents, professions and trades, animals, vehicles and boats, entry of goods into markets, and, since the 101st Amendment (16 September 2016), entertainment. A council shares in mineral royalties on an agreed basis, and the Governor decides any dispute in discretion (paragraph 9). A regulation on moneylending or trading by non-tribal residents (in Tripura and Mizoram, by any resident) needs three-fourths of the council’s total membership (paragraph 10).

State law is handled in two ways. In Assam, Tripura and Mizoram, a state Act on a subject within a council’s powers does not apply in the district unless the council directs so (paragraphs 12, 12AA and 12B). In Meghalaya, a council law that clashes with a state law on those subjects is void to the extent of the clash (paragraph 12A). The Governor can annul or suspend a council’s act that endangers India’s safety or is prejudicial to public order (paragraph 15), and can dissolve a council on a commission’s recommendation (paragraph 16).

Bodoland, Karbi Anglong and the changes since 1995

Parliament has changed the Sixth Schedule for Assam twice. The amendment effective 12 September 1995 renamed two councils the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and gave them extra lawmaking power over 15 subjects, including industries, roads and bridges, primary and secondary education, agriculture, fisheries, water, public health and alienation of land.

The second change followed a Memorandum of Settlement signed on 10 February 2003 by the Government of India, the Government of Assam and the Bodo Liberation Tigers. An amendment effective 7 September 2003 created the Bodoland Territorial Council, with up to 46 members: 40 elected, of whom 30 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, five for non-tribal communities and five are open, and six nominated by the Governor, at least two of them women. Paragraph 3B gives it 40 subjects, among them land and revenue, education, forests other than reserved forests and health, and protects existing land rights in the district.

Ladakh’s hill councils and one pending Bill

Ladakh’s two hill councils sit outside both schedules. The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh was set up under an Act of 1995 and held its first elections on 28 August 1995. The Kargil council followed in July 2003, with 30 councillors, 26 of them elected and four nominated.

The Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill, 2019, introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 6 February 2019, would add village and municipal councils below the district councils, a finance commission for them and state election commission polls. PRS Legislative Research lists the introduction and a Standing Committee report of 5 March 2020 as the Bill’s recorded stages.