Article 244 of the Constitution: What It Says, and Why It Matters
Article 244 is the constitutional basis for two separate systems of tribal administration in India: the Fifth Schedule for Scheduled Areas in ten states, and the Sixth Schedule for tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. This piece breaks down both, plus Article 244A, and shows where UPSC sets its traps.
Article 244 is the constitutional basis for two separate systems of tribal administration in India: the Fifth Schedule for Scheduled Areas in ten states, and the Sixth Schedule for tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. This piece breaks down both, plus Article 244A, and shows where UPSC sets its traps.
What Article 244 actually says
Article 244 is titled Administration of Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas, and it does two things. Clause (1) says the Fifth Schedule shall apply to the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in any state other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Clause (2) says the Sixth Schedule shall apply to the tribal areas in those four states.
That is the whole article. Two sentences. The actual machinery sits in the schedules, which is exactly why aspirants keep getting confused: Article 244 is a doorway, not a room.
One more thing. Article 244A was added later, in 1969, and it applies only to Assam. Keep it separate in your head from clauses (1) and (2), because examiners like the fact that most people merge the three.
| Provision | What it brings in | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Article 244(1) | Fifth Schedule | All states except Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram |
| Article 244(2) | Sixth Schedule | Tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram |
| Article 244A | Power to form an autonomous state | Certain tribal areas within Assam only |
The Fifth Schedule: Governor, President, and a council that only advises
Scheduled Areas are declared by the President under paragraph 6 of the Fifth Schedule. Not by Parliament, not by the state. The President can also alter boundaries or rescind the declaration, after consulting the Governor.
The Constitution nowhere lists the criteria. Those come from the Dhebar Commission and administrative practice: a preponderance of tribal population, compactness and reasonable size, underdeveloped character, and marked economic disparity compared with neighbouring areas.
Ten states have Scheduled Areas today. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan. Notice who is missing. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Karnataka have sizeable Scheduled Tribe populations and no Scheduled Areas at all.
Inside a Scheduled Area, the Governor is the pivot. He submits a report to the President on administration, annually or whenever asked. He can direct that a law of Parliament or of the state legislature will not apply to the area, or will apply with modifications. He can frame regulations on land transfer, moneylending and allotment of land to tribals, with the President's assent.
The Tribes Advisory Council exists in every state with Scheduled Areas: up to twenty members, three-fourths of them Scheduled Tribe MLAs of that state. It advises. It does not decide. That single word has appeared in enough answer scripts as "the TAC decides tribal policy" to be worth remembering correctly.
And PESA, 1996, extends Part IX of the Constitution to Fifth Schedule areas with modifications, making the gram sabha central to consultation on land acquisition and minor minerals. PESA does not touch Sixth Schedule areas.
The Sixth Schedule: councils with real legislative teeth
The Sixth Schedule creates Autonomous District Councils and Regional Councils. These are not advisory bodies. A council can make laws on land other than reserved forest, forest management, shifting cultivation, village administration, inheritance, marriage, divorce and social custom. It can levy certain taxes, collect land revenue, and run village courts for disputes between tribals.
A typical council has thirty members: twenty-six elected on adult franchise, four nominated by the Governor, a five-year term. Bodoland is the exception, with a larger house of forty-six under a special arrangement following the 2003 accord.
Ten such councils exist across the four states. Acts of Parliament and of the state legislature can be barred or modified in their application to these autonomous districts, which is a power similar in spirit to the Governor's power in Fifth Schedule areas, though the route differs.
The 125th Constitutional Amendment Bill, introduced in 2019, proposed to strengthen these councils with finance commissions and devolved village-level bodies. It has not been passed. That pendency is a clean, usable point in a mains answer.
| State | Autonomous councils |
|---|---|
| Assam | Bodoland Territorial Region, Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao |
| Meghalaya | Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills, Garo Hills |
| Tripura | Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council |
| Mizoram | Chakma, Lai, Mara |
Article 244A: the clause that created a state
The 22nd Amendment Act, 1969, inserted Article 244A. It allows Parliament, by ordinary law, to form an autonomous state within Assam comprising some or all of Assam's tribal areas, with its own legislature or council of ministers or both.
This was used. Meghalaya became an autonomous state within Assam in 1970 and a full state in 1972. So Article 244A is not a dead letter, it is a provision that already delivered a state.
It is still being demanded. Karbi Anglong groups have pressed for an autonomous state under 244A for decades, and the demand resurfaced around the 2021 Karbi settlement. If a question asks why a constitutional provision from 1969 is in the news, this is usually the answer.
How UPSC tests this, and where candidates slip
Prelims goes after the boundary between the two schedules. Mizoram sits in the Sixth Schedule, not the Fifth. Manipur has tribal areas but is not a Sixth Schedule state; it has hill area committees under Article 371C. The President declares Scheduled Areas, the Governor administers them. Learn these four facts cleanly and most prelims questions on Article 244 become gettable.
Mains wants tension, not description. Use Samatha (1997), where the Supreme Court read Fifth Schedule protections against transfer of tribal land to mining companies. Use the Niyamgiri judgment of 2013, where gram sabhas of Rayagada and Kalahandi were asked to decide on bauxite mining and said no. Then ask the honest question: if the Governor's powers are this wide, why has almost no Governor used the power to bar a state law that harmed tribal interests? That gap between text and practice is the answer worth writing.
If your polity notes are a pile of underlined pages rather than a revisable structure, that is a separate problem from knowing Article 244, and the structured polity modules in the CSEWHY Courses are built to fix exactly that.
One last thing. Article 244 is short because the Constituent Assembly, after Gopinath Bardoloi's sub-committee report, chose flexibility over detail for tribal governance. Read it that way and the schedules stop feeling like a list to memorise.
FAQs
1. Which states have Fifth Schedule Scheduled Areas?
Ten states: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan. Scheduled Areas are declared by the President, so this list can change by order.
2. What is the difference between Scheduled Areas and tribal areas?
Scheduled Areas are Fifth Schedule areas in ten states, administered largely through the Governor and the state government. Tribal areas are Sixth Schedule areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, administered through Autonomous District Councils that have their own law-making and taxing powers.
3. Does PESA apply to Sixth Schedule areas?
No. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 applies only to Fifth Schedule Scheduled Areas. Sixth Schedule areas have their own council and village-level institutions under the schedule itself.
4. Has Article 244A ever been used?
Yes. It was the route by which Meghalaya was constituted as an autonomous state within Assam in 1970, before becoming a full state in 1972. It remains the basis of the ongoing demand for an autonomous state in Karbi Anglong.
5. How many members does an Autonomous District Council have?
Usually thirty: twenty-six elected by adult franchise and four nominated by the Governor, for a five-year term. The Bodoland Territorial Council is larger, with forty-six seats under a special arrangement.
6. Can a law passed by Parliament be blocked in a Scheduled Area?
Effectively yes. Under the Fifth Schedule the Governor may 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 specified exceptions and modifications.