( 1 ) SEEKING a declaration byta mandamus that the Andhra Pradesh Pan-chayat Raj Act, 1994 (Act 13 of 1994) (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") is not applicable to the scheduled areas in the State of Andhra Pradesh, as declared by the President of India under the V Schedule to the Constitution of India, and a consequential direction restraining the State of Andhra Pradesh and the State Election Commissioner from holding elections to Mandal Praja Parishads, Mandal Praja Territorial Constituencies and Zilla Parishad Territorial, Constituencies (falling within the scheduled areas), this writ petition was filed by Arka Vasanth Rao, the Vice-President of the Gondwana Sangarsh Samithi and three other tribals. The writ petition is founded on the plea that after the enactment of the Constitution (73 Amendment) Act, 1992 by Parliament in exercise of its constituent power, inserting Part-IX comprising Arts. 243 and 243-A to 243-O, the legislature of the State of Andhra Pradesh has no power to make a law with respect to Panchayats, extending its operation to scheduled areas in view of the specific constitutional injunction incorporated in Art. 243-M. Inter alia, it is averred in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition that due to large influx of non-tribals into the scheduled areas, the population of the tribals therein has decreased to a considerable extent resulting in the demographic composition of the scheduled areas undergoing a radical change reducing the tribals to a minority in many parts of the scheduled areas. More than 48% of the agricultural land in the scheduled areas went into the hands of non-tribals in spite of the protected legislation forbidding non-tribals from owning lands in the tribal areas -- 5,913 villages spread over 8 districts -- Adilabad, Warangal, Khammam, West Godavari, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagarani , Srikakulam and Mahaboob-nagar -- in an area of 30,293 sq. kilometer s and populated by 33 scheduled tribes. The total population of the scheduled tribes according to 1991 census is 42 lakhs accounting for 6. 3% of the total population in the State. The enactment of the Panchayat Raj Act by the State of Andhra Pradesh has resulted in the position, regarding reservation for scheduled tribes in scheduled areas undergoing a substantial change to the detriment of tribal interests compared to the earlier position; the exclusive reservation in favour of the scheduled tribes under the V Schedule to the Constitution has now been limited only to those cases where the entire territorial constituency lies in the scheduled area and also the population of the scheduled tribes in the constituency is more than 50%. This has resulted in many elective positions in the scheduled areas going in favour of non-tribals. Out of the 46 Mandal Praja Parishads in the scheduled areas, only 33 are reserved in favour of the scheduled tribes and the remaining 13 were brought into the open pool as the percentage of the tribal population in them is less than 50%. The object of enacting the V Schedule to the Constitution is to preserve and protect the interests of the scheduled tribes in the defined areas, particularly in regard to land and ensure that no erosion takes place in the tribal domain and in order to achieve this objective, special regulations have been enacted under the V Schedule by the Governor, prohibiting the transfer of all land from tribals to non-tribals, regulation of money-lending etc. This objective has been watered down by the enactment of the Panchayat Raj Act, which has introduced the population norm for the purpose of reservation and this would only lead to the disappearance of the scheduled area itself over a period of time by influx of non-tribals.

( 2 ) THE State Government represented by the Chief Secretary is the first respondent and the Union of India represented by the Secretary, Rural Development is the second respondent. The State Election Commissioner is -the third respondent in

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