SANJAY KAROL, CJ.:–The present writ petition stands filed in the nature of public interest litigation seeking a writ of mandamus for the respondents, namely the Union of India as well as the State of Bihar, for the establishment of Tribal Research Institute in accordance with communication dated 14th December, 2017 by Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India (Annexure-1- Page-11).

2. The objective of establishment of such an Institute and the requisite funding therefor was recorded in this Court’s order dated 05.04.2022 in the following terms:—

“We also notice that for the establishment and running of the Institute, perhaps, the State Government is not to spend any money, for the funding for the schemes to be undertaken by the Institute is by way of 100% grant-in-aid of the Central Government (Ministry of Tribal Affairs). We also notice that an apex body already stands constituted by the Central Government. The object and the purpose of establishment of the Institute is to interact; identify issues; find solution of the problems issued by the people hailing from the Scheduled Tribes within the State of Bihar. The challenges in the field of socioeconomic development of Tribal, undoubtedly, are critical and absolutely imperative for achieving the constitutional goals, as envisaged under Part-4 and Part 16 of the Constitution of India. Emphasingly, we extract Clause 3 and Clause 6 of the aforesaid communication.

“3. Institutional Mechanism.—The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Government of India shall be the nodal Ministry for operationalizing the scheme. The scheme shall be a Central Sector Scheme with 100% funding by the Central Government to the TRIs directly or through State Government. A National Level Institute under MoTA could probably be set up to coordinate the activities of TRIs across the country, and to undertake National Level Activities.

6. Funding.—6.1. There is no uniformity of requirements among TRIs. Some of the TRIs have their own building, some others are running in rented building. Similarly, some TRIs have libraries, museums etc. on the other hand some others do not have. It is thus not feasible to lay down a strict criteria for allocation of funds to States. Funding under this Scheme would, however, be 100% grant-in-aid by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to the TRIs on need basis with the approval of APEX Committee. TRIs would be responsible to prepare proposal and detailed action plan for the year along with budgetary requirement and submit it to the Ministry through State Tribal Welfare Department.

6.2 The proposals shall be accompanied by utilization certificates as per provisions of GFR.

6.3. Item-wise proposed budgetary expenditure shall be clearly spelt out.”

Now, if any project undertaken by the State Government is to be fully funded and financed by the Central Government, we fail to understand as to why for more than four years, the Government has slept over the matter. More so, when it stood pointed out in the very same communication that at least 19 States of the Union of India have already set up such establishment.”

3. Vide order dated 28.06.2022, this Court reminded the State of its Constitutional and statutory obligation to provide a platform for the people from tribal community as well as the need for taking expeditious decision.

4. Pursuant to the above order, Secretary, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Welfare Department, Government of Bihar filed an affidavit dated 2nd July, 2022 stating that such Institute would be established within one month from July 1, 2022 and a proposal for a permanent home for the Institute would be sent to the Central Government within three months. The process was directed to be expedited and the Under Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India (Respondent no.2) was directed to take a decision on such proposal within sixty days of its receipt