The Constitution of India, under Article 342, states that the President may “by public notification specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be scheduled tribes.

Thus, as recognized by the Constitution, there is no fixed definition of scheduled tribes (ST). G.S. Ghurye also writes: “the scheduled tribes are neither called the’ aborigines’, northe’adivasis, nor are they treated as a category by themselves.

By and large they are treated together with the scheduled castes and further envisaged as one group of the Backward Classes.”