Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Amendment) Act, 1976

The State of Maharashtra challenged the admission of Milind, who had obtained a caste certificate claiming he belonged to the Halba Scheduled Tribe, on the ground that he was actually a member of the Koshti caste. The High Court had held that a sub‑tribe enquiry was permissible and that Halba‑Koshti could be treated as…

The appellant, Prabhudev Mallikarjunaiah, filed a nomination as a Scheduled Caste (Beda Jangamma) candidate for the Bidar‑1 (SC) Lok Sabha seat in 1991. The Returning Officer rejected his nomination, holding that he belonged to the Veerashiva Lingayath community, not the Beda Jangamma caste listed in Presidential Notif…

The appellant challenged the election of the second respondent from a Scheduled Tribes reserved assembly constituency, alleging that the respondent falsely claimed to belong to the Konda Reddy Scheduled Tribe and had obtained a fraudulent community certificate. The Returning Officer had accepted the nomination based on…

The Action Committee on Issue of Caste Certificate filed a writ petition under Article 32 challenging Maharashtra's denial of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe benefits to persons who had migrated from other states. The petition argued that the denial violated Articles 14, 15(1), 16(2), 19 and the spirit of Articles …

The petitioners, members of the Lohar community in Bihar, sought recognition as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) under the name "Lohara" based on a Presidential notification. The Supreme Court examined whether the erroneous inclusion of "Lohars" in the Hindi translation of the notification, absent in the English version, could c…

The case concerned an election dispute in Madhya Pradesh where the respondent, Maya Devi, claimed to belong to the Katia scheduled caste despite being born to Christian parents. The appellant challenged her eligibility, arguing that conversion to Christianity caused a loss of caste and that reconversion could not reviv…

T. Kocha, claiming membership of the Thandan community (a Scheduled Caste in Kerala), was appointed as a High School Assistant on 3 February 1989 under the SC reservation. Later a vigilance inquiry concluded she belonged to the Ezhava/Thiyya community and therefore was not a Scheduled Caste, leading to a show‑cause not…

The Supreme Court examined whether residents of villages other than the eight originally listed could claim Scheduled Caste status after the President’s notification under Article 341(1) declared the "Lois" as a Scheduled Caste in Manipur. A statutory commission found that only the Lois residing in the eight villages m…

The Supreme Court examined whether the Mana community in Maharashtra is a sub‑tribe of the Gond tribe or a distinct Scheduled Tribe, and whether state resolutions could alter the status conferred by the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order. The Court held that the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, as amended by P…

In the 1978 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election for the Armori constituency (reserved for Scheduled Tribes), the appellant Dadaji was declared elected, claiming membership in the "Mana" community. The unsuccessful candidate challenged the election, arguing that Dadaji did not belong to any Scheduled Tribe listed …

The Andhra Pradesh government, after a commission report, enacted the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservation) Act, 2000, which divided the 59 castes listed under Article 341 into four groups and allocated separate reservation percentages to each. The petitioners challenged the Act on the ground…

The appellants, sisters Suchita and Madhuri Patil, obtained caste certificates claiming they belonged to the Mahadeo Koli Scheduled Tribe and were admitted to medical and dental colleges on that basis. The Verification Committee, after examining ancestral, school and anthropological evidence, held that they were Koli o…