Guwahati: The Coordination Committee of Tribal Organisations of Assam (CCTOA) has decided to reject the recommendations of the Group of Ministers (GoM) proposing the grant of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities—Tai Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Motok, Koch-Rajbongshi and Tea Tribes—citing constitutional, legal and historical reasons.
The decision follows recommendations made by a Consultative Group chaired by Suhas Chakma. In a detailed statement issued on Thursday, the CCTOA said the proposed inclusion of these communities in the ST list would violate constitutional provisions, undermine existing safeguards for recognised Scheduled Tribes, and upset the state’s reservation framework.
The committee argued that under the Constitution of India, Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes are distinct categories identified on separate criteria. While Scheduled Castes are defined largely by their position within the Hindu caste system, Scheduled Tribes are recognised based on specific tribal characteristics such as indications of primitive traits, distinct culture, geographical isolation, limited interaction with the wider population and social and economic backwardness. These criteria were laid down in the 1965 Report of the Advisory Committee on the Revision of the Lists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, commonly known as the Lokur Committee report.
The CCTOA further noted that in 1993, following research by the Assam Institute of Research for Tribals and Scheduled Castes, the state government had recommended the six communities for inclusion as Other Backward Classes (OBCs). This classification was subsequently notified by the National Commission for Backward Classes. Having already been placed in the OBC category, the committee argued, the same communities cannot now be reclassified as Scheduled Tribes for what it described as political expediency.
With specific reference to Tea and Ex–Tea Garden Tribes, the committee said that every expert body constituted since Independence had opposed granting them ST status. It cited the 1947 Joint Report of the Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (Other Than Assam) and the North-East Frontier (Assam) Tribal and Excluded Areas Sub-Committee, chaired by Gopinath Bordoloi and A.V. Thakkar, which had stated that tea garden labourers brought from other parts of the country should not be considered tribes of Assam. The Lokur Committee had also explicitly declined to recommend tea plantation labourers for inclusion in the ST list.
On the Koch-Rajbongshi issue, the CCTOA maintained that Koch and Rajbongshi are distinct communities. It claimed that in the erstwhile Goalpara district, the term “Koch” referred to Bengali Hindu migrants from East Pakistan’s Rangpur district, while Rajbongshis are indigenous Assamese people who were later subsumed into a broader Koch identity. The committee pointed out that Koch were recognised as a Scheduled Caste in West Bengal under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and therefore could not be classified as Scheduled Tribes in Assam.
The committee also contended that the Tai Ahoms, Chutiyas, Morans and Mataks are part of the Assamese mainstream and were not included in the original Scheduled Tribes list prepared under the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, based on recommendations to the Constituent Assembly. These communities were also not identified as Scheduled Tribes by the Lokur Committee, it said.
Questioning the credibility of expert committees whose recommendations were cited by the state government, the CCTOA said many of their members were nominated by organisations representing the concerned communities and were therefore not independent. It noted that an ethnographic expert committee had recommended Scheduled Caste status for only 38 of the 74 Tea and Ex–Tea Garden communities, but the Assam government had proposed ST status for all 74.
The CCTOA warned that granting ST status to the six communities would severely affect political representation and reservation rights of existing Scheduled Tribes at the panchayat, autonomous council, autonomous district council, state assembly and Lok Sabha levels. It also flagged that Assam’s reservation level already stands at 59 per cent—well above the 50 per cent ceiling laid down by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney judgment—and could cross 70 per cent if more communities are added to the ST list.
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Terming the government’s recommendations illegal and unconstitutional, the CCTOA said they directly contradict assurances given by an all-party delegation of the Assam Legislative Assembly that the rights of existing Scheduled Tribes would not be affected. The committee said it would firmly oppose any move that dilutes constitutional protections for recognised tribal communities.
