Scheduled Tribe (ST) status is a constitutional concept and a type of provision in the Indian polity, officially recognizing indigenous communities for special protection and assistance due to their extreme social, educational, and economic backwardness. The term first appeared in the Constitution of India. Article 366(25) defines Scheduled Tribes as communities deemed to be STs under Article 342 for the purposes of the Constitution.
The status was created to solve the problem of historical injustice and marginalization, with the first list being notified through the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. The criteria for a community's inclusion, though not explicitly in the Constitution, are well-established and include primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, and backwardness.
The mechanism for conferring this status is governed by Article 342. Clause (1) empowers the President of India to specify the tribes to be deemed as STs in a particular State or Union Territory after consulting the Governor. Clause (2) grants the exclusive power to include or exclude any community from the ST list to the Parliament through a legislative act. The list is State/UT specific.
The status connects to various constitutional safeguards, such as reservation in education and employment under Article 15(4) and Article 16(4). It also ensures political representation through the reservation of seats in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) under Article 330 and in the State Legislative Assemblies under Article 332. The 89th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003, inserted Article 338A to establish the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) as a separate constitutional body.
The reservation of seats for STs was extended until January 25, 2030, by the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019. Recently, the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was passed to include the Pahari Ethnic Group in the ST list for the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. The Supreme Court, in State of Maharashtra v. Milind (2000), ruled that only Parliament can amend the ST list under Article 342(1), and courts cannot hold an inquiry to include a community not explicitly mentioned. Furthermore, the judgment in Kumari Madhuri Patil v. Additional Commissioner (1994) established a mandatory procedure for the verification of caste certificates to prevent their misuse.