EPFO EO/AO 2023 General Ability Test · Question 93 of 120

Correct — B, (b) 1, 2 and 3 only. Statements 1, 2 and 3 are among the recognised criteria for declaring a Scheduled Area; statement 4 names the wrong authority, and rejecting it is what decides the question. The criteria first. The Constitution itself lays down no test — paragraph 6 of the Fifth Schedule simply says that Scheduled Areas are such areas as the President may by order declare to be Scheduled Areas. The working criteria come from the report of the first Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission, chaired by U. N. Dhebar, and they are the four the Ministry of Tribal Affairs still cites: preponderance of tribal population; compactness and reasonable size of the area; underdevelopment, that is economic backwardness compared with neighbouring areas; and the existence of a viable administrative entity such as a district, a block or a taluk. Statement 1 is the first of these, statement 2 is the second, and statement 3 is the third. All three are correct as printed. Statement 4 is the error, and it is a well-made one. Under paragraph 6(1) of the Fifth Schedule the declaration is made by the PRESIDENT, by order. Paragraph 6(2) keeps the same authority for every later change: the President may direct that an area shall cease to be Scheduled, may increase a Scheduled Area after consultation with the Governor, may rectify boundaries, and may rescind earlier orders and make fresh ones in consultation with the Governor of the State concerned. The Governor is consulted; the Governor does not notify. The trap works because the Governor genuinely dominates the administration of a Scheduled Area once it exists. Paragraph 3 requires the Governor to report annually to the President on its administration. Paragraph 4 provides for a Tribes Advisory Council in every State having Scheduled Areas. Paragraph 5 gives the Governor the power to direct by public notification that an Act of Parliament or of the State legislature shall not apply to a Scheduled Area, or shall apply with exceptions and modifications, and the power to make regulations for the peace and good government of the area, subject to the President's assent. A candidate who has learned the Governor's long list of powers and has not separately learned who declares the area will accept statement 4 and choose option (d). So the correct set is 1, 2 and 3, and that is option (b).

• (a)2 and 4 only — This code keeps the compactness criterion and the Governor's notification while dropping the two criteria that are least disputable of all — preponderance of tribal population and economic backwardness. Tribal preponderance is the first and most fundamental of the criteria, since the whole purpose of the Fifth Schedule is the protection of Scheduled Tribes, and it is not plausible that it could be omitted. The option compounds that by retaining the one statement that is actually wrong. It is the weakest of the four codes.
• (c)1 and 3 only — This code correctly rejects the Governor's notification but also drops statement 2 on compactness and reasonable size, which is a genuine criterion. Compactness matters for a practical reason worth remembering: the Fifth Schedule works through area-based administration, with a Tribes Advisory Council, regulations of the Governor and, since 1996, the extension of Panchayat provisions under the PESA Act — none of which can function over a scatter of tiny non-contiguous pockets. The area must be large enough and coherent enough to be administered as a unit. A candidate who arrives at this option has done the hard part of the question right and then discarded a true statement.
• (d)1, 2, 3 and 4 — This code accepts all four statements, including the claim that the notification is issued by the Governor of the State concerned. Under paragraph 6 of the Fifth Schedule the declaring authority is the President, and the Governor's role at that stage is consultative. This is the most attractive wrong option and the one the item is built to catch, because the Governor has so many other powers over a Scheduled Area — the annual report to the President under paragraph 3, the Tribes Advisory Council under paragraph 4, and the power under paragraph 5 to disapply or modify a law and to make regulations — that the power to declare the area feels as though it should belong there too.

Article 244(1) applies the Fifth Schedule to the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in any State other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, which are governed instead by the Sixth Schedule under Article 244(2). The Fifth Schedule creates a distinct constitutional regime rather than a welfare scheme. Paragraph 6 vests the power to declare, alter or rescind a Scheduled Area in the President by order. Paragraph 3 obliges the Governor to submit an annual report to the President on the administration of the Scheduled Areas in the State, and gives the Union power to direct the State on that administration. Paragraph 4 requires a Tribes Advisory Council of up to twenty members, three-quarters of them representatives of the Scheduled Tribes in the State legislative assembly, to advise on matters referred to it. Paragraph 5 is the operative protection: the Governor may notify that any Act of Parliament or of the State legislature shall not apply to a Scheduled Area or shall apply with modifications, and may make regulations — in particular to prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of Scheduled Tribes, to regulate the allotment of land, and to regulate money-lending — with the President's assent required for such regulations. Ten States currently have Scheduled Areas. The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, generally called PESA, extends the Panchayat provisions of Part IX to these areas with modifications that give the Gram Sabha extensive powers, and it applies only where a Fifth Schedule declaration exists — which is why the question of who declares an area is not merely formal.

Tribal administration is a recurring polity theme in EO/AO papers because it combines a constitutional schedule, a set of administrative criteria and a well-known Act, and because the division of authority between the Union, the Governor and the State is easy to state and easy to misremember. This item takes the four-statement code format, which is unforgiving: three of the four statements must be judged correctly, and a single acceptance of a false statement changes the code. The habit rewarded is separating the power to CREATE an institution from the powers exercised WITHIN it, since Indian constitutional design very often places those in different hands. Note the printing: the four numbered items carry no full stops, as the booklet sets them.

• Paragraph 6(1) of the Fifth Schedule: Scheduled Areas are such areas as the President may by order declare to be Scheduled Areas.
• Paragraph 6(2) allows the President to alter, increase, rectify or rescind such areas, consulting the Governor where required.
• The criteria used in practice come from the Dhebar Commission: preponderance of tribal population, compactness and reasonable size, underdevelopment or economic backwardness, and a viable administrative entity.
• Article 244(1) applies the Fifth Schedule to States other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, which fall under the Sixth Schedule.
• Paragraph 3 requires the Governor to report annually to the President on the administration of Scheduled Areas.
• Paragraph 4 provides for a Tribes Advisory Council of up to twenty members, three-quarters of them Scheduled Tribe members of the State assembly.
• Paragraph 5 lets the Governor disapply or modify a law for a Scheduled Area, and make regulations on land transfer, land allotment and money-lending with the President's assent.
• The PESA Act, 1996 extends Part IX Panchayat provisions to Scheduled Areas with a strengthened role for the Gram Sabha.

• Attributing the declaration to the Governor because the Governor holds most of the other powers over a Scheduled Area.
• Assuming the criteria are written into the Constitution; they come from a commission's report and administrative practice.
• Confusing the Fifth Schedule with the Sixth, which covers four north-eastern States and works through autonomous district councils.
• Dropping the compactness criterion as though it were an administrative nicety rather than one of the recognised tests.

Fifth Schedule questions in EO/AO papers ask who declares a Scheduled Area, which States are excluded from the Schedule, what the Tribes Advisory Council is, or what powers the Governor holds under paragraph 5. Learn the paragraph numbers along with the content, and keep a clear line between the President's declaring power and the Governor's administering powers.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, an area is declared a Scheduled Area by :

  • (a)The Governor of the State by public notification
  • (b)The President by order
  • (c)The State legislature by resolution
  • (d)The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes

  Answer(b) The President by order

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution does not apply to which one of the following States ?

  • (a)Jharkhand
  • (b)Odisha
  • (c)Meghalaya
  • (d)Chhattisgarh

  Answer(c) Meghalaya