The legitimacy of administrative classifications must be challenged timely; clerical errors do not invalidate established orders regarding Scheduled Areas.

ORDER :

1. This Writ Petition is filed to declare the action of the Respondent-Authorities treating Gudur and Ayodhyapuram Revenue Villages of Gudur Mandal, Mahabubabad (wrongly typed as Mahmubabad) District as Scheduled Area Villages is illegal and contrary to Scheduled Areas (Part-B States) Order of 1950. Consequently, a direction is sought to respondents to treat Gudur and Ayodhyapuram Revenue Villages of Gudur Mandal, Mahabubabad District as non-Scheduled Areas in view of non-mentioning of these two villages as scheduled area villages in Narsampet Taluq in the Presidential Notification (Part-B States) Order 1950, dated 07.12.1950.

2. Originally, the Writ Petition was instituted against 11 respondents. Later Respondents 12, 13 and 14 were impleaded as per Court Order dated 30.07.2025 in IA No. 2 of 2025.

3. The case of petitioners, in brief, is that they are permanent residents of Gudur and Ayodhyapuram Villages of Gudur Mandal, Mahabubabad District, having residential houses and agricultural lands mentioned in the writ affidavit. The extents of land possessed by them is immaterial for the lis, hence not extracted. Previously, these villages were in erstwhile Warangal District and their families have been residing there for more than 100 years. They contend that Gudur and Ayodhyapuram Villages of Gudur Mandal are not notified as Schedule Area villages under the Scheduled Areas (Part-B States) Order of 1950 (for brevity 'the 1950 Order’). However, respondents have wrongly treated these two villages as Scheduled Area.

3.1. It is contended, neither the 1950 Order nor other Notifications have declared these villages as Schedule Area and the said villages are not notified as schedule areas in the list by the 1950 Order. As per the information of petitioners, the President of India is to specify certain areas in Part-A and Part- B States as Scheduled Areas as per V Schedule to the Constitution. Required information was received from Part-A State Governments in time but the same could not be completed in respect of Part-B States. Therefore, the Scheduled Areas (Part-A States) Order of 1950 was published on 26.01.1950 and for Part-B States, Scheduled Areas (Part-B States) Order of 1950 was published on 04.04.1950. The Government of Hyderabad sent proposals for preparation of scheduled areas before bifurcation and a draft was also prepared on 23.03.1950.

3.2. It is contended that Gudur and Ayodhyapuram Villages of Narasampet Taluq were not notified in the 1950 Order dated 07.12.1950. This non-inclusion is evident not only from 1950 Order but also from the letter of the District Collector, Warangal, dated 08.12.1978 including certain non- schedule villages in the sub-plan area and revision of list of schedule areas by rescinding the Schedule Areas (Part-A States) Order 1950. It is further stated, these two villages were formed before 1930 and they have very less population of STs. as per the census of 1951, 1961, 1971 and 1981. Petitioners have given table of percentage of total population, non-tribal and tribal population and the percentage of STs. It need not be extracted.

3.3. On the strength of the above information, petitioners made several representations to State Government not to treat the two villages in question as schedule area villages. The Government of India, Ministry of Tribal Welfare issued proceedings dated 01.12.2014 to the State Tribal Welfare Department for bifurcation of schedule areas notified under V Schedule to the Constitution in the State of Andhra Pradesh. However, respondent-authorities have not corrected the mistake. While so, petitioners have given representations dated 16.01.2025 a