ISBN: 978-93-94174-56-6

Revisiting the Sixth Schedule: Does Constitutional Autonomy Really Protect Tribal Land Rights in Northeast India

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Political Science, M.C. Das College, Sonai, Cachar, India

The Indian Constitution under its Sixth Schedule of 1950 remains among the most progressive in land protection and autonomy for tribal populations globally. Nevertheless, it has become increasingly pertinent and imperative after 75 years of its implementation to inquire into the relevance of constitutional autonomy as a guarantor of tribal land rights. The disparity between the tandem of promises and reality between the Northeast states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram within India remains within the purview of this chapter. This chapter argues that despite its robust legal safeguards in which Autonomous District Councils have exclusive legislative power over land, Paragraph 3 mentions "customary law," and Paragraph 19 prevents "acquiring lands outside tribal areas," inherent structural defects have undermined these safeguards as discussed.Being dependent on state governments for finances, political interference, capacity deficits, overlaps in the case of state forces, judicial watering down of the constitutional safeguard, and corporate evasion strategies are some of the examples of institutional failures. These have resulted in the illegal occupation of approximately 7,184 acres of the protected tribal Grazing Lands in the West KarbiAnglong region; the alienation of 3,000 bighas of the Dima Hasao tribal land to a cement factory in violation of the constitutional provision; and the eventual substitution of the customary community landholding pattern with the concept of commoditized private property in the favor of transnational corporations and settler outsiders. The chapter ends with a mention that in the effort towards gaining substantive safeguarding measures for the tribals in the region against the threatening circumstances of industrialization brought on by transnational corporations, encroachment, and cultural degradation, the Sixth Schedule itself faces the threatening scenario of becoming a moribund lived safeguard in itself.

*Corresponding author; e-mail: bipulpator@gmail.com

Cite this Chapter: Bipul Pator. 2026. Revisiting the Sixth Schedule: Does Constitutional Autonomy Really Protect Tribal Land Rights in Northeast India. In: Dr. Shamim Ahmed Shamim Khan Barbhuiya. Dr. Saurabh Sarma. Dr. Kowser Alam Laskar. Dr. Atiqur Rahman Laskar. Dr. Gulenoor Islam Barbhuiya (Eds.), ANUSANDHAN-A Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Research Repository. Excellent Publishers, India. pp. 1-10. doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/978-93-94174-56-6_1