The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA Act) is a central Act of the Indian Parliament, enacted on December 24, 1996, as Act No. 40 of 1996. Its primary purpose is to extend the provisions of Part IX of the Constitution, which deals with Panchayats, to the Scheduled Areas identified under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. The Act was created because the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, which established the three-tier Panchayati Raj system, had explicitly excluded the Fifth Schedule Areas from its operation. This exclusion was intended to protect the unique socio-cultural systems and traditional governance of tribal communities, but it created a governance vacuum. The PESA Act was based on the recommendations of the Dilip Singh Bhuria Committee (1995) and aimed to integrate traditional self-governance practices with formal institutions.
The Act works by mandating that state legislatures, when making laws for Panchayats in Scheduled Areas, must be in consonance with the customary law, social and religious practices, and traditional management of community resources. It places the Gram Sabha at the center of self-governance, empowering it to safeguard traditions, cultural identity, and community resources. Key provisions under Section 4 grant the Gram Sabha mandatory powers, including the ownership of minor forest produce and the authority to prevent land alienation and restore unlawfully transferred tribal land. For political representation, the Act mandates that the reservation for Scheduled Tribes (STs) shall not be less than one-half of the total seats in Panchayats, and all seats for the Chairperson at all levels must be reserved for STs. Crucially, the Act mandates that the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats must be consulted before land is acquired for development projects and before granting prospecting licenses or mining leases for minor minerals. The PESA Act connects directly to the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and intersects with the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). While the Act itself has not been replaced, its implementation relies on state-level amendments to existing Panchayati Raj laws and the framing of PESA Rules, which has been a staggered process, with some states finalizing their rules only recently.