Under which Article of the Indian Constitution does the President issue a public notification for the Scheduled Tribes for a specific state?
- (a)Article 340
- (b)Article 349
- (c)Article 342
- (d)Article 338
Correct — C, Article 342. Under Article 342(1) the President may, by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities — or parts of or groups within them — which shall be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to a State or Union Territory; where a State is concerned, the notification is issued after consultation with the Governor of that State. Article 342(2) then locks the list: once the first notification is issued, any community can be included in or excluded from it only by Parliament by law, not by another Presidential notification. Article 342 is the ST twin of Article 341, which does the same job for the Scheduled Castes.
- (a)Article 340 — Article 340 empowers the President to appoint a Commission to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes — the provision under which the Kaka Kalelkar and Mandal Commissions were set up. It concerns backward classes, not the notification of Scheduled Tribes.
- (b)Article 349 — Article 349 lays down a special procedure for the enactment of certain laws relating to language. It belongs to the Official Language part of the Constitution and has nothing to do with Scheduled Tribes.
- (d)Article 338 — Article 338 provides for the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes is separately provided under Article 338A, inserted by the 89th Amendment Act, 2003). These create watchdog commissions — they do not decide who is notified as a Scheduled Tribe.
The Constitution nowhere defines which communities are tribal. Article 366(25) simply says that 'Scheduled Tribes' means those tribes or tribal communities deemed to be Scheduled Tribes under Article 342 — that is, the Constitution supplies the machinery, not the list. The machinery has two stages: a first Presidential notification for each State/UT (in consultation with the Governor for a State), and thereafter amendment of that list only by an Act of Parliament. Because every notification is made 'in relation to' a particular State or Union Territory, ST status is State-specific — a community scheduled in one State is not automatically an ST in another.
The trap in the option set is Article 338, which every aspirant associates with SC/ST machinery. Keep the two functions apart: 341/342 answer 'who gets on the list', while 338/338A answer 'who watches over their rights'. A quick mental block — 340 backward-classes commission, 341 SCs, 342 STs, 342A SEBCs — settles the whole family of questions.
- Article 342(1): the President, by public notification, specifies the STs in relation to a State/UT — after consulting the Governor in the case of a State.
- Article 342(2): inclusion in or exclusion from the notified ST list can be done only by Parliament by law.
- Article 341 does the same for Scheduled Castes; Article 366(25) defines STs by reference to Article 342.
- Article 338 = National Commission for Scheduled Castes; Article 338A = National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (89th Amendment Act, 2003); Article 342A = socially and educationally backward classes (102nd Amendment Act, 2018, later amended by the 105th Amendment Act, 2021).
Notification of a list (341, 342) is a different function from oversight of rights (338, 338A) — that is the distinction the question is testing.
- Thinking the Governor notifies the STs — the Governor is only consulted; the President notifies.
- Assuming a later addition to the list can be made by a fresh Presidential notification — Article 342(2) requires an Act of Parliament.
- Mixing Article 338 (National Commission for SCs) with 338A (National Commission for STs).
MPPSC prefers direct Article-number matching; UPSC prefers statement questions on who notifies the list and whether ST status carries from one State to another (UPSC 2024).
Consider the following statements: 1. It is the Governor of the State who recognizes and declares any community of that State as a Scheduled Tribe. 2. A community declared as a Scheduled Tribe in a State need not be so in another State. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
Exactly the same provision from the other end — the Governor is only consulted (the President notifies), and ST status under Article 342 is State-specific.
Which one of the following statements is not correct?
- (a) There is no definition of the Scheduled Tribe in the Constitution of India.
- (b) North-East India accounts for a little over half of the country’s tribal population.
- (c) The people known as Todas live in the Nilgiri area.
- (d) Lotha is a language spoken in Nagaland.
Answer(b) North-East India accounts for a little over half of the country’s tribal population
Its option (a) is the accepted statement and the same underlying point — the Constitution does not define 'Scheduled Tribe'; it only provides the Article 342 notification route.
Article 338 of the Constitution of India is related to the
- (a) National Commission for Scheduled Castes
- (b) National Commission for Scheduled Tribes
- (c) National Commission for Backward Classes
- (d) National Human Rights Commission
Answer(a) National Commission for Scheduled Castes
The same Article-family, and the exact distractor used here — MPPSC has already tested that 338 is the SC Commission, not an ST-notification provision.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under which Article does the President specify, by public notification, the castes deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to a State or Union Territory?
- (a)Article 338
- (b)Article 340
- (c)Article 341
- (d)Article 342
Answer(c) Article 341 — the Scheduled Castes counterpart of Article 342.
- practice — not a real PYQ
After the first notification under Article 342(1), a tribe can be included in or excluded from the list of Scheduled Tribes of a State by:
- (a)a fresh notification of the President
- (b)a law made by Parliament
- (c)an order of the Governor of the State
- (d)a recommendation of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes
Answer(b) a law made by Parliament — Article 342(2).