The main legal point established in the judgment is that legislation regarding the welfare, protection, and advancement of Scheduled Tribes is specially provided for in the Constitution, and the State Legislature does not have the power to legislate on such matters.

1. The petitioner, a Mala Arayan, a member of a Scheduled Tribe (a hill tribe), prays for a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, direction or order striking down the Kerala Hillmen Rules, 1964 framed for the protection, advancement, treatment and management of hill tribes under S.76 (a) of the Kerala Forest Act and also directing the Government and the officers of the Forest Department to forbear from acting on these rules. The main contention of the petitioner, who is a member of a registered society called Vanavarga Maha Sabha, is that the said rules are beyond the competence of the State Legislature and the State Government as the rules deal with a subject which is not included either in the State List or in the Concurrent List of Schedule VII of the Constitution. He also contends that the subject falls within the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.

2. Art.244 of the Constitution provides that the Fifth Schedule shall apply to the administration and control of the Scheduled Areas and the Scheduled Tribes in any State other than the State of Assam. Then there are Articles like 338 providing for the appointment of a Special Officer for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and 339 giving power to the President for appointing a Commission to report on the administration of the Scheduled Areas and the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes in the States. Art.342 (1) provides that the President may, with respect to any State or Union Territory, and where it is a State after consultation with the Governor thereof, by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of, or groups within, tribes or tribal communities which shall, for the purposes of the Constitution, be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be. Clause (2) of Art.342 gives power to the Parliament to include in, or exclude from, the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in the notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community. These provisions of the Constitution make it abundantly clear that legislation regarding the welfare, protection, advancement, etc of Scheduled Tribes is specially provided for and power is vested in the President and in the Parliament to deal with those matters.

3. The affidavit of the petitioner alleges that he is a Mala Arayan, a member of a Scheduled Tribe; and the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State does not dispute this. The petitioner further alleges that he is a member of Vanavarga Maha Sabha, a registered society. The President of India, taking power under Art.342(1) of the Constitution, promulgated the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order of 1950, wherein Mala Arayan is included in Part XIV relating to Travancore-Cochin as a Scheduled Tribe throughout the State. In 1956, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act was passed by the parliament and therein also Mala Arayan is listed as a Scheduled Tribe throughout the State of Travancore-Cochin. Therefore, it cannot be disputed that the petitioner is a Mala Arayan, a member of a Scheduled Tribe. And any law touching the welfare of Mala Arayans has to be passed as contemplated by Art.244 and the other Articles like 338 and 339 of the Constitution. Evidently, the State Legislature has no power to legislate on this subject.

4. The State has power under Entry 19 of list II of Schedule VII to legislate regarding "forests", and S.76 of the Kerala Forest Act of 1961 confers power on the Government to make rules, inter alia, "for the protection, advancement, treatment and management of hill tribes".

5. The impugned rules are framed under this provision in the Kerala Forest, Act. The argument of the Government Pleader is that the hill tribes who are living in settlements in Reserved Forests are part of the forests, so that the State legislature has power to legislate regarding their protection, ad