Scheduled Tribes
2 articles
Allahabad High Court: A Scheduled Tribe Land Sale Can Fail Because of the Buyer's Lost Tribal Status, Not Just the Seller's
Deciding nine connected writ petitions arising from land purchases made between 2012 and 2016 in Sonbhadra district, the Allahabad High Court has held that a statutory restriction on transferring Scheduled Tribe land to non-tribal buyers is not satisfied merely because the purchaser was born into the tribe and holds a caste certificate — she must also show she retained her tribal identity on the date of each purchase, and a prolonged, undisclosed change of religious and social identity can defeat that claim even years after the sale deeds were registered.
13 min readGujarat High Court: A Tribal Widow's Inherited Land Is Hers to Will Away, Absent a Proven Custom Barring Her
Deciding a second appeal over agricultural land in Surat district contested since 2002, the Gujarat High Court has held that a Scheduled Tribe widow who inherits property from her husband takes it as her own absolute, self-acquired property — free to bequeath it by will — unless a custom restricting female inheritance is actually pleaded and proved, not merely assumed.
13 min read