PESA: Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (1996)
Article 243M of the Constitution of India states that nothing in Part IX of the Constitution relating to Panchayat shall apply to Scheduled Areas referred to in Clause (1) of Article 244, that is, areas included in the Fifth Schedule that today lie in the 9 States of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
However, Article 243M(4)(b) goes on to say that ‘Parliament may, by law extend the provisions of this Part to the Scheduled Areas’ and this was done in 1996 when Parliament enacted ....
