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SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
J.C. SHAH, V. BHARGAVA, JJ.
Dina - Appellant
Versus
Narayan Singh - Respondent
Civil Appeal No. 1622 of 1961
Decided On : 21-05-1968
Constitution of India, 1950 – Article 342 – Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Amendment) Act 63 of 1956 – Election – Eligibility – At the elections held in February 1967, Dina Vithoba Narnavare, resident of Tahsil Gadchiroli, District Chanda, was declared elected to the Maharashtra legislative assembly from the Armori Scheduled Tribes Constituency. – High Court set aside the election in an application filed by the first respondent on the ground that the appellant Dina was not eligible to stand as a candidate from a reserved constituency. – Held, That there are sub-tribes amongst the Gonds is not denied. Names of some of those sub-tribes are included in Entry 12 of Item 5 of Part VII-A of the Schedule is also a matter which is beyond dispute. – Customs, manners, form of worship, and dress of the members of the Maratha Mana community are all different from the customs, manners, form of worship and dress of the Gonds. – No rational explanation has been suggested why the Parliament should have, while including under Entry 12 several sub-tribes of Gonds, specified Mana under that entry, if Manas had no affinity at all with Gonds. – Appellant was uncertain about the claim that he was making. – In the nomination paper filed by him he claimed to be a Gond (Mang). – His subsequent explanation that he did so because the rules so required cannot be accepted as true. – He relied upon the Mana in the belief that all Manas were intended to be given the benefit of the privileges conferred by the Scheduled Tribes Order. – He described himself as a Gond (Mana). – Realizing thereafter that his community had no affinity with the Gonds he stated that he was not a Gond; that he had nothing to do with the Gonds, and that his community had also nothing to do with the Gonds. – He rested his claim solely upon the description in Entry 12 in Item 5 of Part VII-A of the Schedule. – But the form in which the entry is made prima facie indicates that in the view of the legislature, Mana was a sub-tribe of Gonds and a Mana who was a member of the sub-tribe of Gonds alone was entitled to the privileges conferred by the Schedule to the Scheduled Tribes Order. – Court therefore agree with the High Court that the appellant, merely because, he belonged to the Mana community amongst the Marathas, is not eligible to stand as a candidate for election to the Maharashtra legislative assembly from the reserved seat of the Armori constituency in Gadchiroli tahsil of Chanda District. – Appeal Dismissed
JUDGMENT :
J.C. SHAH, J.
1. At the elections held in February 1967, Dina Vithoba Narnavare, resident of Tahsil Gadchiroli, District Chanda, was declared elected to the Maharashtra legislative assembly from the Armori Scheduled Tribes Constituency. The High Court set aside the election in an application filed by the first respondent on the ground that the appellant Dina was not eligible to stand as a candidate from a reserved constituency.
2. By his election petition the first respondent contended that the appellant is a Mana and not a Gond (Marra) and that the (Kshatriya Badwaik Mana community to which the appellant belonged is a sub-caste of Marathon or Kunbis who are not Gonds and on that account the appellant was not qualified to stand for election from the reserved constituency. The appellant denied that he was a Kshatriya Badwaik Mana and claimed that he belonged to the Mana community which was one of the aboriginal races in the Chanda District and was included in the list of scheduled Tribes in the Scheduled Tribes Order. He asserted that there was only one caste or community called Mana in Chanda District and there were not two communities Gond Mana and Kshairiya Mana as alleged by the first respondent.
3. The appellant declared by his nomination paper that he, is a member of the Gond (Mana) caste, and that the same is a Scheduled Tribe in Taluka Gadchiroli of District Chanda and in the Maharashtra State, but in his examination by the court he deposed:
"I belong to the Mana community. I claim that I belong to the Scheduled Tribe. I do not claim that I belong to the Gond Tribe. I do not claim that I belong to a sub-caste called Mana of which the head caste is Gond.
I do not claim that I am a Gond (Mana). I claim that I belong to a community called Mana amongst the Scheduled Tribe. "
It is cleat that the appellant claimed in filing his nomination paper that he was a Gond (Mana): at the trial he denied that he was a Gond (Mana) or that he belonged to the community or sub-tribe called Mana of the Gond tribe, and asserted that he belonged to the Mana community and that the Mana community was included in the list of Scheduled Tribe-; under the Scheduled Tribes Order.
4. The President issued the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 342 of the Constitution. By clause 2 of that Order it was provided that the tribes or tribal communities, or parts of, or groups within, tribes or tribal communities, specified in Parts I to XII of the Schedule to the Order shall, in relation to the States to which those Parts respectively relate, be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes so far as regards members thereof resident in the localities specified in relation to them respectively in those Parts of that Schedule. The Order is followed by a Schedule constituting of twelve Parts. Part VII-A of the Schedule as amended by Act 11 of 1960 relating to Maharashtra by Item 5 specifies that in (1) Melghat tahsil of Amravati district, (2) Gadchiroli and Sironcha tahsils of the Chanda District, (3) Kelapur, Wani and Yeotmal tahsils of the Yeotmal district, 32 tribes or tribal communities shall be deemed Scheduled Tribes. Entry 12 as originally set out in the order promulgated by the President read: "Gond [including Madia (‘Maria’) and Mudia (Muria)]. By the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Amendment) Act 63 of 1956, Entry 12 was substituted by:
"12. Gond, including
Arakh or Arrakh
Agaria
Asur
Badi Maria or Bada Maria
Bhatola
Bhimma
Bhuta, Koilabhuta or Koilabhuti
Bhar
Bisonhorn Maria
Chota Maria
Dandami Maria
Dhuru or Dhurwa
Dhoba
Dhulia
Dorla
Gaiki
Gatta or Gatti
Gaita
Gond Gowari
Hill Maria
Kandra
Kalanga
Khatola
Koitar
Koya
Kirwar or Khirwara
Kucha Maria
Kuchaki Maria
Madia (Maria)
Mana
Mannewer
Moghya or Mogia or Monghya
Mudia (Muria)
Nagarchi
Nagwanshi
Ojha
Raj
Sonjhari Jhareka
Thatia or Thotya
Wade Maria or Vade Maria".
Item 30 of that list is Mana and Item 31 is Mannewer. In the Schedule to the Presidential Order as originally i
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