Exact date to be set
Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has sent a tribal land restoration dispute back to the Deori ( Gondia ) tehsildar, holding that the exact date on which the Gond community was recognised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) is crucial to deciding whether agricultural land transferred in 1973 can be restored under the Maharashtra Restoration of Lands to Scheduled Tribes Act, 1974. A central argument concerned the registered sale deed dated Feb 7, 1973. The judge noted that the tribunal had itself recorded the community’s recognition as tribal in 1976.
The petitioner contended that the Gond community in Bhandara and Gondia districts was recognised as a Scheduled Tribe only in 1976 and, therefore, the respondents did not qualify as tribals under the 1974 Act. Justice Deshpande found that the record did not clearly establish the precise date on which the community was included and recognised as a Scheduled Tribe for the purposes of the Act. Since the transaction predated the stated year of recognition, that date was material to determining the respondents’ entitlement to restoration.
He referred to an earlier full bench ruling that subsequent recognition of a community as tribal does not entitle a person to restoration of land transferred to a non-tribal before that recognition.