Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2017 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, GRS-A-TNS); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 permits self-governance of natural resources by

(a)Gram Sabha
(b)Gram Panchayat
(c)the Chairman of Gram Panchayat
(d)forest dwellers of a village situated in the areas mentioned in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India

Answer

Why

Correct — A, (a) Gram Sabha. PESA's entire design rests on making the village assembly, not the elected council, the primary institution of self-government in the Scheduled Areas, and the natural-resource clauses of section 4 are where that shows most plainly.

Section 4(d) is the anchor: every Gram Sabha shall be competent to safeguard and preserve the traditions and customs of the people, their cultural identity, community resources and the customary mode of dispute resolution. 'Community resources' is the phrase that puts natural resources in the assembly's hands as a matter of competence, not of delegation. The specific clauses then follow. Section 4(i) requires the Gram Sabha or the Panchayat at the appropriate level to be consulted before land in a Scheduled Area is acquired for a development project and before those displaced are resettled. Section 4(k) makes their recommendation mandatory before a prospecting licence or a mining lease for minor minerals is granted, and section 4(l) makes their prior recommendation mandatory before a concession for exploiting minor minerals by auction is given. Section 4(j) entrusts the planning and management of minor water bodies to the Panchayats at the appropriate level, and section 4(m) requires State law to endow Panchayats with, among other things, the ownership of minor forest produce and the power to prevent and reverse the alienation of tribal land.

The reason (a) beats (b) is constitutional rather than verbal. Under Part IX as it stands for the rest of the country, the Gram Sabha exercises only such powers as the State legislature chooses to give it under Article 243A, which in practice left it weak; the elected Gram Panchayat is where authority sits. PESA reverses that in the Scheduled Areas. It declares the Gram Sabha competent in its own right, requires State laws to contain safeguards so that a Panchayat at a higher level does not assume the powers of one at a lower level or of the Gram Sabha, and — under section 4(e) — makes the Panchayat the body that implements plans the Gram Sabha has already approved. In the Scheduled Areas the assembly decides and the council executes.

One more piece of the architecture explains why an Act was needed at all. Article 243M kept Part IX from applying to the Scheduled Areas, while allowing Parliament to extend it there with exceptions and modifications. PESA — Act No. 40 of 1996, enacted on 24 December 1996 — is that extension, and the modifications it carries are precisely the tribal self-governance provisions of section 4. The booklet prints the Act's name without a leading 'The', exactly as the stem shows.

Why the others are wrong

(b)Gram Panchayat — The Gram Panchayat is the elected council, and in the Scheduled Areas PESA deliberately places it below the Gram Sabha rather than above it. Section 4(e) has the Gram Sabha approve plans, programmes and projects for social and economic development before the village Panchayat takes them up for implementation, and identify the beneficiaries of poverty-alleviation programmes; section 4(f) has it certify the utilisation of funds by the Panchayat. Where the natural-resource clauses do name the Panchayat, they say 'the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats at the appropriate level', which is a category that includes the intermediate and district levels and is not the same thing as the Gram Panchayat by itself. Marking (b) is the natural answer for a candidate applying ordinary Panchayati Raj to a statute written specifically to depart from it.
(c)the Chairman of Gram Panchayat — No individual holds these powers under PESA. The Act works entirely through collective bodies — the assembly of all adult villagers on the electoral roll, and the elected Panchayats — and nothing in section 4 confers a personal competence on the Sarpanch or Chairman, who presides over meetings rather than deciding for the village. The Act does deal with the office: it requires reservation of seats in the Panchayats in the Scheduled Areas in proportion to the community's population, with not less than half the total seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, and reserves all chairperson positions for members of the Scheduled Tribes. But reserving who may hold an office is a very different thing from vesting resource decisions in the office holder, and treating the two as equivalent is the mistake this option exists to catch.
(d)forest dwellers of a village situated in the areas mentioned in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India — This option is long, specific and describes a real body of law — just not this one. Vesting rights in forest dwellers as a class of persons is the scheme of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, which recognises individual and community forest rights in favour of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers. Even under that Act the Gram Sabha is the authority that initiates the process and determines the claims, so the assembly remains the institution. PESA is a self-governance statute: it does not create a category of rights-holders, it makes an institution competent, and the institution it makes competent is the Gram Sabha. The mention of the Fifth Schedule in the option is accurate but does no work — PESA operates in Fifth Schedule areas too, so the phrase is true of both statutes and separates nothing.

Concept

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment created a uniform three-tier Panchayati Raj system, but Article 243M kept Part IX out of the Scheduled Areas under the Fifth Schedule and the tribal areas under the Sixth, while permitting Parliament to extend Part IX to them with exceptions and modifications. The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 — Act No. 40 of 1996, enacted on 24 December 1996 — is that extension, and it applies to the Scheduled Areas notified under the Fifth Schedule, which lie in ten States including Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan. Section 4 carries the modifications. State legislation must be in consonance with customary law, social and religious practices and traditional management practices of community resources. A village is defined as a habitation or group of habitations that manages its affairs by tradition and custom, and every village has a Gram Sabha of the persons on the electoral roll. The Gram Sabha is competent to safeguard community resources, culture and customary dispute resolution; it approves development plans before the Panchayat implements them, selects beneficiaries and certifies the use of funds. Consultation with the Gram Sabha or the appropriate Panchayat is mandatory before land acquisition and resettlement; their recommendation is mandatory before minor-mineral prospecting licences, mining leases and auction concessions. State law must endow Panchayats with power over intoxicants, the ownership of minor forest produce, the prevention and restoration of tribal land alienation, village markets, money-lending to Scheduled Tribes, social-sector institutions and local plans including tribal sub-plans. Higher-level Panchayats may not absorb the powers of lower levels or of the Gram Sabha.

For an Enforcement Officer this is not abstract constitutional law; PESA is the statute a candidate will meet whenever a project, a lease or a benefit programme touches a Scheduled Area, and the recurring dispute is always about whether the Gram Sabha was consulted or its recommendation obtained. The item rewards the habit of asking, for any self-governance question, which institution the statute names — assembly, council, or office holder — because Indian local-government law distributes powers among all three and the difference is the whole content of most questions on it. Note too the shape of the stem: it ends in the preposition 'by' rather than in a question mark, so the four options complete a sentence rather than answer a question, and the grammar itself tells a candidate that an institution is expected.

Key facts

PESA is Act No. 40 of 1996, enacted on 24 December 1996, extending Part IX of the Constitution to the Scheduled Areas.
Article 243M had excluded Part IX from the Scheduled Areas while allowing Parliament to extend it with exceptions and modifications.
Section 4(d): every Gram Sabha is competent to safeguard and preserve traditions and customs, cultural identity, community resources and the customary mode of dispute resolution.
Section 4(e): the Gram Sabha approves development plans before the village Panchayat implements them, and identifies beneficiaries of poverty-alleviation programmes.
Section 4(i): consultation with the Gram Sabha or the appropriate Panchayat is mandatory before land acquisition in Scheduled Areas and before resettlement of those displaced.
Section 4(j): planning and management of minor water bodies is entrusted to the Panchayats at the appropriate level.
Sections 4(k) and 4(l): their recommendation is mandatory before a prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals, and before a concession for exploiting minor minerals by auction.
Section 4(m): State law must endow Panchayats with the ownership of minor forest produce, control over land alienation and restoration, village markets, money-lending to Scheduled Tribes and local plans including tribal sub-plans.
Higher-level Panchayats may not assume the powers of a lower-level Panchayat or of the Gram Sabha.
Not less than half the seats in Panchayats in Scheduled Areas are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, and all chairperson posts are reserved for them.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 is the separate statute that vests forest rights in forest dwellers, with the Gram Sabha as the determining authority.

PESA makes the assembly competent, and the council merely executes

(a) Gram Sabha→Section 4(d) is the anchor: every Gram Sabha shall be competent to safeguard and preserve the traditions and customs of the people, their cultural identity, community resources and the customary mode of dispute resolution. 'Community resources' is the phrase that puts natural resources in the assembly's hands as a matter of competence, not of delegation.

The specific resource clauses→4(i) consultation before land in a Scheduled Area is acquired and before those displaced are resettled; 4(j) planning and management of minor water bodies; 4(k) mandatory recommendation before a prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals; 4(l) mandatory prior recommendation before an auction concession; 4(m) State law must endow Panchayats with the ownership of minor forest produce.

(b) Gram Panchayat→The elected council, which PESA deliberately places below the assembly. Section 4(e) has the Gram Sabha approve plans before the village Panchayat implements them, and 4(f) has it certify the utilisation of funds. Where the resource clauses do name the council they say 'the Panchayats at the appropriate level', a category that includes the intermediate and district levels.

Why the inversion needed an Act→Under Part IX for the rest of the country the Gram Sabha exercises only such powers as the State legislature chooses to give it under Article 243A, which in practice left it weak. Article 243M kept Part IX out of the Scheduled Areas while letting Parliament extend it with modifications, and PESA — Act No. 40 of 1996, enacted on 24 December 1996 — is that extension.

(c) The Chairman of the Gram Panchayat→No individual holds these powers. The Act works entirely through collective bodies, and nothing in section 4 confers a personal competence on the Sarpanch, who presides over meetings rather than deciding for the village. PESA does reserve not less than half the seats and all chairperson posts for Scheduled Tribes — but reserving who may hold an office is not vesting resource decisions in the holder.

(d) Forest dwellers as a class→A real body of law, but a different statute. Vesting rights in forest dwellers is the scheme of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 — and even there the Gram Sabha initiates the process and determines the claims. The Fifth Schedule reference is accurate but separates nothing, since PESA operates in those areas too.

Study next

The Fifth Schedule — Scheduled Areas, the Governor's report, the Tribes Advisory Council and the power to modify lawsThe Sixth Schedule and Autonomous District Councils, and how they differ from PESA's schemeThe Forest Rights Act, 2006 — individual, community and community forest resource rights, and the Gram Sabha's roleArticle 243M and the areas to which Part IX does not apply, including its exceptionsMinor minerals and minor forest produce — how each is defined and who regulates them

Common traps

Applying ordinary Panchayati Raj logic and answering 'Gram Panchayat'; PESA was written precisely to invert that hierarchy in the Scheduled Areas.
Confusing PESA with the Forest Rights Act — the first empowers an institution, the second recognises rights of persons.
Assuming the recommendation requirement covers all minerals; sections 4(k) and 4(l) speak of minor minerals.
Reading a reservation of chairperson posts for Scheduled Tribes as a grant of decision-making power to the chairperson.
Forgetting that consultation before land acquisition is a consultation requirement, while the minor-mineral clauses require a recommendation — a stronger condition.

Tribal self-governance appears in EPFO papers either as an institution-identification item like this one, or as a statement-list item on what a Gram Sabha may and may not do, or as a question on the Fifth Schedule machinery itself. The reliable preparation is section 4 of PESA read once in the original, clause by clause, noting for each whether the actor is the Gram Sabha, the Panchayats at the appropriate level, or the State legislature.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2023_Q93

What are the prerequisites for declaring any area as a ‘Scheduled Area’ under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India ? 1. Preponderance of Tribal Population 2. Compactness and reasonable size of the area 3. Economic backwardness of the area 4. The notification must be issued by the Governor of the concerned State Select the correct answer using the code given below :

(a) 2 and 4 only
(b) 1, 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer(b) 1, 2 and 3 only

The other half of this subject on the 2023 EO/AO paper — what qualifies an area to be declared a Scheduled Area under the Fifth Schedule, which is the territory PESA operates in.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, the prior recommendation of the Gram Sabha or the Panchayat at the appropriate level is mandatory for
- (a)the grant of a prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals
- (b)the appointment of the Governor's adviser on tribal affairs
- (c)the notification of an area as a Scheduled Area
- (d)the constitution of the Tribes Advisory Council
Answer(a) the grant of a prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals
practice — not a real PYQ
The provisions of Part IX of the Constitution were extended to the Scheduled Areas by
- (a)the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act itself
- (b)an order of the President under the Fifth Schedule
- (c)the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996
- (d)the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006
Answer(c) the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996

Why