Telangana High Court Uphold Single Judge's Ruling On Tribal Area Status Of 23 Villages In Mangapet Mandal

The Telangana High Court has dismissed appeals against a single bench decision upholding the State's decision to treat Mangapet Mandal as scheduled area and to reserve all offices of the Gram Panchayats there in favour of the Scheduled Tribes.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy noted that Nizam Government had made the Regulations and also issued notifications exercising powers under the Tribal Area Regulations, 1359 Fasli and amendments therein from time to time and also as per the provisions of the Hyderabad Land Revenue Act, 1317 Fasli, to protect the interest of the tribal people residing in the scheduled areas even much prior to the adoption of the Constitution of India.

It observed that as per Article 372(1) of the Constitution of India, notwithstanding the repeal by the Constitution of the enactments referred to in Article 395 but subject to the other provisions of the Constitution, all the laws in force in the territory of India immediately before the commencement of the Constitution continued to remain in force until altered or repealed or amended by a competent legislature or other competent authority.  

"The Nizam, Ruler of the princely State of Hyderabad, had become the Raj Pramukh of the Part B State of Hyderabad after adoption of the Constitution on 26.01.1950 and continued till 1956. From 01.11.1956, the Telangana area of Part B State of Hyderabad along with the erstwhile State of Andhra became the State of Andhra Pradesh. The Ruler of the princely State of Hyderabad exercising the powers conferred under Section 5 of the Hyderabad Land Revenue Act, 1317 Fasli in supersession of all previous orders had issued notification dated 21.04.1950 annexing the rescheduling of the villages and the subject 23 villages which were in Paloncha Taluq were placed in Mulug Taluq of Warangal District for the purpose of land tenure," said the court.

It further said that as per Article 372(1) of the Constitution of India, an order is a legislative Act which cannot be nullified by the executive act of the successor State and orders made by the governments of erstwhile States continue to remain in force unless they are not modified, changed or repudiated by the successor governments under the legislative domain.

"The notification dated 16.11.1949 issued by the Government of Hyderabad is still in force as it is the existing law within the meaning of Article 366(10) and Article 372(1) of the Constitution of India. Unless the said notification is superseded, annulled, modified or amended by any subsequent order passed by the competent authority, it would continue to hold the field. As such the contention of the petitioners/appellants that these villages are not scheduled areas is not tenable," said the court.

The bench was hearing a batch of three appeals filed against a Single Judge decision that upheld the validity of the notification dated 25.06.2013, by way of which all seats in the office of the Gram Panchayat, Mangapet Mandal were reserved in favour of the Scheduled Tribes.

It was argued before the court that State of Hyderabad had issued notification dated 21.04.1950 dividing Hyderabad State into 16 Districts and that under the notification dated 21.04.1950, Mangapet circle was in Mulug Taluq and consisted of 23 villages, and the 23 villages of Mangapet Mandal were not notified as “Scheduled Areas” in the Presidential Order dated 07.12.1950. The decision was upheld by the court in 1973 and 1974, it was submitted.

The division bench said the single bench, which had dismissed the petitions, had rightly rejected the contentions of the appellants that the subject villages are not the scheduled areas.

"Referring to Regulations 1359 Fasli and Rules made thereunder vis-à- vis Article 366(10) and 372(1) of the Constitution of India, the position makes it very clear that in the absence of specific order denuding or deleting the tribal areas status conferred by the Tribal Areas Regulations, 1359 Fasli (1949 AD) to all these 23 villages, it cannot be said that the status given to these villages as scheduled areas came to an end in view of adopting the Constitution on 26.10.1950 or issuance of the Presidential Order i.e., Scheduled Areas (Part B States) Order, 1950 on 07.12.1950," said the court.

The court noted that in exercise of the powers under paragraph 5(2) of the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh made the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation, 1959 to regulate the transfers of land in the scheduled areas and these Regulations came into force with effect from 04.03.1959.

"These Regulations prohibit transfer of immovable properties situated in scheduled areas from the members of scheduled tribe to non-tribals without the previous sanction of the State Government. If any land is transferred from scheduled tribe to non-tribal in the agency area, the same is declared as null and void and the person aggrieved thereby is entitled to agitate his grievance before the authorities constituted under the said Regulations," it added.

The court observed the appellants cannot take advantage of non-implementation of these Regulations for the last fifty years and the benefits derived from the Regulations or the enactment to the tribals as an advantage to contest in stating that these are non-tribal villages.

"The law made prior to adoption of the Constitution is enforceable even after adoption of the Constitution unless the competent legislature has amended the existing law to cater to the needs of the tribal community and therefore, this Court cannot find any fault with the findings recorded by the learned Single Judge in upholding the action of the respondents in treating the Mangapet Mandal of Warangal District as scheduled area and in reserving all offices of the Gram Panchayats therein in favour of the Scheduled Tribes and needs no interference by this Court," it said, while dismissing the appeals.

Title: Marri Venkata Rajamdied, Warangal Dist Anr v. Prl Secy, Panchayat Raj, Rural Devt Dept, Hyd & ors.

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