PESA 1996: gram sabha self-rule in Scheduled Areas

Detail

1. Why PESA was needed

• Scheduled Areas are tribal areas that the President declares under Article 244 and the Fifth Schedule. They get special protection for land, resources and culture [2].
• About 8.6% of India's people are tribal [2].

• The Fifth Schedule does not apply to Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Those four states come under the Sixth Schedule, which works through autonomous district councils [2].

• 73rd Amendment (1992, in force 1993): it added Part IX (panchayats) and the Eleventh Schedule, which lists 29 subjects for panchayats. It set up three tiers: gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad [2].

• The gap:
• Art. 243M(1) kept Part IX out of the Scheduled Areas. So the 73rd Amendment did not apply there on its own [2].

• Art. 243M(4)(b) allowed Parliament to extend Part IX to these areas by an ordinary law, "with exceptions and modifications". Such a law does not count as a constitutional amendment under Art. 368.

• The result: Parliament passed a separate Act instead of applying Part IX unchanged.

2. Bhuria Committee and the passing of PESA

• Bhuria Committee (1994-95): chaired by MP Dilip Singh Bhuria. It proposed a model centred on the gram sabha, not on the elected panchayat.
• PESA Act 1996: its full name is the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996. It is Act No. 40 of 1996 [3].
• It received assent and came into force on 24 December 1996 [4].

• It applies to the ten Fifth Schedule states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana [4].

• Trap:

	Bhuria Committee	Bhuria Commission
Years	1994-95	2002-04
Basis	Set up to advise on extending Part IX	Art. 339 (a commission on the administration of Scheduled Areas and the welfare of STs)
Outcome	Led to PESA 1996	Reported on tribal welfare and administration

3. Core idea: self-rule rooted in custom

• Gram sabha: the assembly of all adults on the electoral roll of a village [2].

• Class 9 Democracy calls it "the primary decision-making body".

• The gram sabha is at the centre. The elected panchayat is not.

• Under ordinary Part IX, the state legislature decides what the gram sabha can do [2].

• Under PESA, the Act itself fixes the gram sabha's powers, and state law cannot cut them down.

• Devolution, not delegation: PESA hands power directly to gram sabhas and panchayats [4].

• Delegation would mean the state lends power and can take it back.

• The government calls PESA a "Constitution within the Constitution" [4].

• Village (s. 4(b)): a habitation, a group of habitations or a hamlet whose community runs its affairs by tradition and custom. Every village has its own gram sabha [3][4].
• In ordinary Part IX, the gram sabha covers the voters of the whole gram panchayat area. Under PESA it is formed for each village, as defined above [4].

4. Provisions of Section 4

s. 4 opening words: whatever Part IX says, a state legislature cannot make a panchayat law that goes against the features below [3].

(a) Custom first

• s. 4(a): state panchayat laws must match customary law (unwritten rules the community has followed for generations), social and religious practices and the traditional management of community resources [3].

(b) Gram sabha: protective powers

• s. 4(d): the gram sabha is "competent" to protect [4]:
• the people's traditions, customs and cultural identity;
• community resources;
• the customary way of settling disputes.

(c) Gram sabha: development duties

• s. 4(e)(i): it approves plans, programmes and projects before the panchayat carries them out [4].
• s. 4(e)(ii): it selects beneficiaries of poverty-alleviation and other schemes [4].
• s. 4(f): the panchayat must get a utilisation certificate from the gram sabha. This certificate confirms that the money was spent on the approved work [4].

(d) Land and resources (gram sabha or panchayat "at the appropriate level")

Clause	Power
s. 4(i)	Must be consulted before land acquisition for projects and before resettlement of displaced people [4]
s. 4(j)	Planning and management of minor water bodies [4]
s. 4(k)	Prior recommendation needed before a prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals [4]
s. 4(l)	Prior recommendation needed before auctions of minor minerals [4]

(e) Powers the state must give to gram sabhas and panchayats (s. 4(m)) [4]

• (i) enforce prohibition, or regulate or restrict the sale and use of intoxicants;
• (ii) ownership of minor forest produce (non-timber forest products such as tendu leaves, honey and lac);
• (iii) prevent land alienation (tribal land passing to non-tribals) and restore land taken unlawfully;
• (iv) manage village markets;
• (v) control money-lending to STs;
• (vi) control institutions and staff in social sectors;
• (vii) control local plans and resources, including tribal sub-plans (the share of a budget set aside for tribal areas).

(f) Seats and posts

• s. 4(g): seats are reserved in proportion to the communities' population, but STs get at least half of all seats at every level [3].

• All chairperson posts at every level are reserved for STs [3].

• s. 4(h): the state may nominate members of STs that have no seat at the intermediate or district level. Such nominees can be no more than one-tenth of the elected members [4].

(g) Guarding the structure

• s. 4(n): the state must make sure that higher-tier panchayats do not take over the powers of lower tiers or of the gram sabha [3].
• s. 4(o): district-level administration should follow the Sixth Schedule pattern of autonomous councils [3].
• s. 5 (transition): an existing state law that goes against PESA lapses one year after 24 December 1996, unless it is amended or repealed earlier [3].

5. Coverage (2025 data) [2]

Item	Number
States with Fifth Schedule areas	10
Villages	77,564
Panchayats	22,040
Blocks	664
Districts fully covered	45
Districts partly covered	63

• Odisha has the most villages (19,311), followed by Jharkhand (16,022) [2].

6. Implementation record

(a) Slow alignment of state laws

• States had to bring their Panchayati Raj Acts and their subject laws (land, excise, forest, mining, markets, money-lending) into line with PESA. Many were slow to do so.
• 2021 status (as states reported it) [4]:
  • Gujarat had brought all six subject laws into line.
  • Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had brought none of the six into line.
• Jharkhand gave ownership of minor forest produce to gram panchayats by a resolution dated 8 February 2007 [4].

(b) PESA rules

• A state needs its own rules to make the Act work on the ground.
• 8 of the 10 states have notified PESA rules: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Telangana [2].

• Madhya Pradesh notified its rules on Janjatiya Gaurav Divas (15 November) 2022 [6].

• Odisha and Jharkhand had only draft rules as of December 2025 (verify current) [2].

(c) Central government push (Ministry of Panchayati Raj, MoPR)

• Conferences: a national conference in November 2021 marked 25 years of PESA [4].
• Training: in 2024-25, MoPR and seven anchor states ran master-trainer programmes. Over 1 lakh people were trained [2].
• PESA-GPDP Portal: launched in September 2024. It lets gram panchayats plan funds hamlet by hamlet and village by village. Funds covered include Finance Commission grants and centrally sponsored schemes [2].
• PESA Day: marked on 24 December 2024, with the national event in Ranchi [2].
• PESA Cell: a dedicated unit set up in MoPR [2].
• Manuals: translated into Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati and Odia, and into the tribal languages Santhali, Gondi, Bhili and Mundari [2].
• Centre of Excellence: Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak signed an agreement (MoU) on 24 July 2025 [2].
• PESA Mahotsav: held on 23-24 December 2025 in Visakhapatnam. It is to be held every year on 23-24 December, the anniversary of the Act [2].

(d) Gaps on the ground

• "Consultation" (s. 4(i)) is often treated as a formality. The state hears the gram sabha but does not have to follow it.
• RFCTLARR Act 2013, s. 41 (the land acquisition law) goes further than PESA [5]:
• land in Scheduled Areas should be acquired only as a "demonstrable last resort";
• prior consent of the gram sabha (or panchayat or autonomous district council) is needed, even in urgent cases;

• a Development Plan is needed for displaced ST families.

• Planning Commission Expert Group (2008) on Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas [7]:

• it linked the Maoist (Left-Wing Extremism) problem partly to PESA not being implemented;

• tribal people lost land, forests and voice, and this fed alienation.

• How panchayats work in general (elections, State Election Commission, finance) is covered in the panchayati-raj note.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 243M(1) keeps Part IX out of Scheduled Areas. Art. 243M(4)(b) lets Parliament extend it with changes. PESA is an ordinary Act, not a constitutional amendment.
• PESA = Act No. 40 of 1996. It came into force on 24 December 1996 in 10 Fifth Schedule states. It does not apply to Sixth Schedule states.
• Bhuria Committee (1994-95) → PESA. Bhuria Commission (2002-04) → Art. 339. These are two different bodies.
• Reservation under PESA: at least 50% of seats for STs and 100% of chairperson posts at every level. State nominees can be no more than one-tenth of elected members.
• Minor minerals: the gram sabha's prior recommendation is needed for leases and auctions (s. 4(k), 4(l)). For land acquisition, PESA requires only consultation (s. 4(i)). The RFCTLARR Act 2013 s. 41 requires consent.
• Ownership of minor forest produce goes to gram sabhas and panchayats (s. 4(m)(ii)).
• States without final PESA rules (December 2025): Odisha and Jharkhand.
• PESA Mahotsav 2025: Visakhapatnam, 23-24 December. PESA Day 2024: Ranchi. PESA-GPDP Portal: September 2024.

Mains Points

• Deep democracy vs a state that holds back power: PESA makes the gram sabha the main decision-maker. But states have been slow to change their forest, excise and mining laws and to frame rules (Odisha and Jharkhand still had only drafts in 2025). This shows how states hold on to power even when Parliament has passed a law.
• Consultation vs consent: PESA's weak word "consultation" lets officials treat the gram sabha as a box to tick. Reform options: make consent the rule in PESA itself, as the RFCTLARR Act 2013 s. 41 already does for land. The gram sabha's veto could also be extended to major-mineral projects.
• Security and governance link: the Planning Commission Expert Group (2008) tied Left-Wing Extremism partly to PESA not being implemented. Giving real control over land, forest produce and money-lending can reduce support for armed groups more lastingly than force alone.
• Custom vs constitutional values: putting customary law first protects tribal identity. But it can conflict with gender equality, since few women hold traditional posts. The answer is codified rules that respect custom while keeping fundamental rights.