Shah, J.

1. At the elections held in February 1967, Dina Vithoba Narnavare, resident of Tahsil Gadchiroli, District Chanda, was declared elected to the Maharashtra legislative assembly from the Armori Scheduled Tribes Constituency. The High Court set aside the election in an application filed by the first respondent on the ground that the appellant Dina was not eligible to stand as a candidate from a reserved constituency.

2. By his election petition the first respondent contended that the appellant is a Mana and not a Gond (Marra) and that the (Kshatriya Badwaik Mana community to which the appellant belonged is a sub-caste of Marathon or Kunbis who are not Gonds and on that account the appellant was not qualified to stand for election from the reserved constituency. The appellant denied that he was a Kshatriya Badwaik Mana and claimed that he belonged to the Mana community which was one of the aboriginal races in the Chanda District and was included in the list of scheduled Tribes in the Scheduled Tribes Order. He asserted that there was only one caste or community called Mana in Chanda District and there were not two communities Gond Mana and Kshairiya Mana as alleged by the first respondent.

3. The appellant declared by his nomination paper that he, is a member of the Gond (Mana) caste, and that the same is a Scheduled Tribe in Taluka Gadchiroli of District Chanda and in the Maharashtra State, but in his examination by the court he deposed:

"I belong to the Mana community. I claim that I belong to the Scheduled Tribe. I do not claim that I belong to the Gond Tribe. I do not claim that I belong to a sub-caste called Mana of which the head caste is Gond.

I do not claim that I am a Gond (Mana). I claim that I belong to a community called Mana amongst the Scheduled Tribe."

It is cleat that the appellant claimed in filing his nomination paper that he was a Gond (Mana): at the trial he denied that he was a Gond (Mana) or that he belonged to the community or sub-tribe called Mana of the Gond tribe, and asserted that he belonged to the Mana community and that the Mana community was included in the list of Scheduled Tribe-; under the Scheduled Tribes Order.

4. The President issued the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 342 of the Constitution. By clause 2 of that Order it was provided that the tribes or tribal communities, or parts of, or groups within, tribes or tribal communities, specified in Parts I to XII of the Schedule to the Order shall, in relation to the States to which those Parts respectively relate, be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes so far as regards members thereof resident in the localities specified in relation to them respectively in those Parts of that Schedule. The Order is followed by a Schedule constituting of twelve Parts. Part VII-A of the Schedule as amended by Act 11 of 1960 relating to Maharashtra by Item 5 specifies that in (1) Melghat tahsil of Amravati district, (2) Gadchiroli and Sironcha tahsils of the Chanda District, (3) Kelapur, Wani and Yeotmal tahsils of the Yeotmal district, 32 tribes or tribal communities shall be deemed Scheduled Tribes. Entry 12 as originally set out in the order promulgated by the President read: "Gond [including Madia (`Maria') and Mudia (Muria)]. By the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Amendment) Act 63 of 1956, Entry 12 was substituted by:

"12. Gond, including

Arakh or Arrakh

Agaria

Asur

Badi Maria or Bada Maria

Bhatola

Bhimma

Bhuta, Koilabhuta or Koilabhuti

Bhar

Bisonhorn Maria

Chota Maria

Dandami Maria

Dhuru or Dhurwa

Dhoba

Dhulia

Dorla

Gaiki

Gatta or Gatti

Gaita

Gond Gowari

Hill Maria

Kandra

Kalanga

Khatola

Koitar

Koya

Kirwar or Khirwara

Kucha Maria

Kuchaki Maria

Madia (Maria)

Mana

Mannewer

Moghya or Mogia or Monghya

Mudia (Muria)

Nagarchi

Nagwanshi

Ojha

Raj

Sonjhari Jhareka

Thatia or Thotya

Wade Maria or Vade Maria".

Item 30 of that list is Mana and Item 31 is Mannewer. In the Schedule to the Presidential Order as originally issued Mana was not included as a Scheduled Tribe. In the Order as amended, in Entry 12 Mana is recognised as a Scheduled Tribe. The appellant contends that thereby all members of the Mana community in the specified localities were intended to be recognised as members of a Scheduled Tribe: the first respondent contends that only those persons who belong to the Mana sub-tribe of Gonds are intended to be recognised as members of a Scheduled Tribe. The question which we have to decide in this appeal is whether by the amendment made by Act 63 of 1956 it was intended to declare under Entry 12 Manas who are not Gonds, as members of a Scheduled Tribe. The status of a Scheduled Tribe is purely statutory, and the authority of the Parliament to declare a tribe or tribal community a Scheduled Tribe or a Scheduled community is not denied. The Parliament has placed Mana under Entry 12 of which the relevant part reads Gond including Mana. If a tribe or tribal community having no affinity with the tribe or tribal community of Gonds was intended to be recognised as a Scheduled Tribe, the name of that tribe or tribal community would appropriately be set out under a distinct head. When the Parliament has included the Mana community under Entry 12, it would be reasonable to infer that Mana community which is a sub-tribe of the Gonds, or has some affinity with it, is intended to be referred. There is a considerable body of evidence on the record that Rujgonds, Maria Gonds, Mudia, Gai Gowari and Arakh are sub-tribes of Gonds and they are included in Entry 12 as amended. The appellant however asserts that Manas are not Gonds, and have no affinity with Gonds. He claims that Manas are a community distinct from Gonds, and that amongst the Gond sub-tribes there is no sub-tribe known as Mana. The claim of the appellant is therefore rested solely upon the inclusion of Mana in Entry 12 of Item 5 of Part VII-A of the Schedule.

5. It is clearly established on the evidence that there is a community called Mana in the Chanda and the adjoining districts, who are Marathas, and are not Gonds. The community is known as Kshatriya Mana or Kunbi Mana. There is however, evidence on the record which the High Court has accepted that among the Gond Tribes there is a sub-tribe called Mana. The appellant as already observed denies the existence of a sub-tribe among the Gonds called Mana he asserts that Manas are not Gonds at all. If, however, it be established that there is, apart from the Mana which is a community of the Mahrathas, a sub-tribe of Gonds known as Mann, it would be difficult to hold that the Parliament by amendment of Entry 12 intended to declare Manas who are not Gonds, as a Scheduled Tribe under the description Gond including Mana. It is true that the expression including may by a statutory fiction confer certain rights, privileges or status for the purpose of the statute upon a class which does not normally fall within the principal head. But when the Parliament included amongst the 32 items in Entry 12 several tribes or tribal communities which are recognised as sub-tribes of Gond, an inference that it was intended to include Mana, which is a sub-tribe of Gonds alone and not Mana as a community which is a section of the Marathas may readily be made.

6. Counsel for the appellant invited our attention to the anthropological and other studies in support of his contention that there is no sub-tribe of Gonds known as Mana. Counsel relied upon the information contained in the Gazetteer of the District of Chanda published in 1909 at p. 108, para 96 that -

"The Mana caste numbers about 27,000 or 4 per cent of the population and owns 14 villages. There is a legend that previous to the rise of the Gond kingdom they were the dominant race in the district and ruled from the fortresses of Manikgarh and Surajgarh. Thakur Deo on the summit of Surajgarh is still their tutelary deity. They seem however to have lost this tradition among themselves and only remember that they once were soldiers, and the sword is one of their objects of worship. The true origin of the caste has not been discovered but they are supposed to be an offshoot of the Gonds who have greatly raised their status by becoming cultivators and adopting the whole of the Hindu pantheon.. "

and also upon Russell's Castes and Tribes of Central Provinces, Vol. IV at pp. 172 - 176 wherein a detailed description of the Mana community is given. Under the heading Mana it is stated:

"A Dravidian caste of cultivators and labourers belonging to the Chanda District, from which they have numbered nearly 50,000 persons, of whom 34,000 belonged to Chanda. The origin of the caste is obscure. In the Chanda Settlement Report of 1869 Major Lucie Smith wrote of them: Tradition asserts that prior to the Gond conquest the Manas reigned over the country, having their strongholds at Surajgarh in Amri and at Manikgarh in the Manikgarh hills now of Hydrabad, and that after a troubled rule of two hundred years they fell before the Gonds. In appearance they are of the Gond type, and are strongly and stoutly made; while in character, they are hardy, industrious and truthful. Many warlike traditions still linger among them, and doubtless in days goneby they did their duty as good soldiers, but they have long since hung up sword and shield and now rank among the best cultivators of rice in Chanda. "Another local tradition states that a line of Mana princes rules at Wairagarh .. Some of the Manas say that they, as well as the Gowaris, are offshoots of the Gond tribe; and a local saying to the effect that The Gond, the Gowari and the Mana eat boiled juari or beans on leaf-plates' shows that they are associated together in the popular mind.. The Gonds have a sub-division called Mannewar, and as war is only a Telugu suffix for the plural, the proper name Manne closely resembles Mana .. And the most plausible hypothesis "as to the past history of the Manas is that they were also the rulers of some tract of Chanda and were displaced like the Parjas by a Gond invasion from the south.

Owing to their general adoption of Maratha customs, the Manas are now commonly regarded as a caste and not a forest tribe, and this view may be accepted. They have two sub-castes, the Badwaik Manas or soldiers, and the Khad Manas, who live in the plains and are considered to be of impure descent .. A third group of Manas are now amalgamated with the Kunbis as a regular sub-division of that caste, though they are regarded as somewhat lower than the others. They have also a number of exogamous sects of the usual titular and totemistic types, and a few recognizable names being Marathi .. The social customs of the Manas are the same as those of the other lower Maratha castes, as described in the articles on Kunbi, Kohli and Mahar ..

The Manas have Bhats or genealogists of their own caste, a separate one being appointed for each sect. "

Reliance was also placed upon the classification made in the Settlement Report of the Chanda District for the year 1869, Chapter III dealing with aboriginal Gonds. This includes Gonds as Class I, Manas as Class II, Pradhans as Class III, Gowaris as Class IV and so on. These passages no doubt establish the existence of Mana as a section of the Maratha community, its origin is said to be a forest tribe, but it has for a long time been recognised as a Maratha caste. But Russell also recognizes a subdivision of Gonds known as Mana or Mannewar, residing in parts of the Chanda district. Counsel for the appellant however urges that the anthropological and other studies disclosed that the Manas were initially an aboriginal community and those Manas now form a distinct community who have adopted the Maratha customs, manners and social behaviour and are recognised as a sub-community of the Marathas and it is only in view of their origin they had been recognised as a Scheduled Tribe, by the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order.

7. If on the evidence it is established that there is no sub-tribe of Manas amongst the Goods, the argument would have force. But on the record there is evidence which supports the case of the first respondent that there is a sub-tribe of Manas amongst the Gonds, and the High Court has accepted that evidence.

8. The first respondent who is a Rajgond said that there is a sub-caste of Manas amongst the Gonds and that the appellant does not belong to that sub-caste. It also appears from the evidence that the customs, manners, form of worship and dress of Goods are entirely different from the customs, manners, behaviour, form of worship and dress of the Marathas. The first respondent said that there are Mana who belong to the Gond tribe, in Nawargaon and Palasgaon villages who are of wandering tribes and that one Dayaram of Nawergaon village was a Gond (Mana). He also stated that there were Gond (Manas) at Janakpur, Bhuj and Brahmapuri taluk and also in Bhanda district in Village Chirchadi and in many villages in Bale ghat district. One Vishwanath Tukaram Akre who was examined as a witness for the first respondent also deposed that the appellant belongs to the Kshatriya Badwaik Mana community, and is a not a member of the Gond tribe; that there are sub-castes of Gond community one of which is Mana and that the customs, manners, the form of worship and dress of men and women of Goods were entirely different from those of the Hindu community. He also deposed that there are 800 Manas at Nawargaon and Palasgaon and other villages. Dayaram who was referred to as a Gond (Mana) by the first respondent in his evidence, though cited as a witness, was not examined. Nor was any other Gond (Mana) examined as a witness. But the learned trial Judge was considerably impressed by the testimony of Vishwanath Akre.

9. The appellant denied that there was any community called Gond (Mana). According to the appellant there is a Mana community which has no sub-caste or sub-division and that he is not a member of any sub-caste of any other community. He admitted that he had made a declaration with his nomination paper that he belonged to Gond (Mana) community: he attempted to explain that declaration by saying that he did so because the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order so provided. He admitted-that the customs and manners of persons belonging to his (Mana) community are quite different from those belonging to Gond community, and that amongst the Goods there were sub-divisions called Arak, Gowari, Rajgond, Bada Gali, Moria, Ojha, Wanjari, Malhi and some others. Another witness Shrawan Shrirame examined for the appellant stated that there was no sub-division in his caste and by the use of the appellation "Kshatriya" with the name of his community it was intended to refer to the martial tradition of Manas who ruled the territory. He also stated that there were no Manas amongst the Gonds and he knew that as a fact because he had not come across any sub-caste of Mana amongst Gonds in the area in which he worked as Senior Accountant in the Divisional Forest Office at Chandrapur. The witness first asserted that there were no sub-castes amongst Gonds, but later admitted that there were some sub-castes such as Madia, Rajgond etc, but that Mana was not a sub-caste among Gonds. He admitted that he had made no enquiries whether in fact there existed a sub-caste of Mana amongst the Gonds, and that his statement that there was no such sub-caste of Mana within the Gond community was founded on the fact that he did not know of such a sub-caste though he did not make any enquiry. Witness Vishwanath Ghodmare - a Revenue Inspector - also gave similar testimony, but he stated that he had not come across any caste known as Gond (Mana). He asserted that there were no sub-castes or sub-tribes amongst Gonds but later stated that there were sub-castes among Gonds such as Rajgonds, Gavate Gonds, Pardhan Gonds, Maria Gonds. He, however, asserted that there were no Mana Gonds. Witness Vishwanath Kejoji stated that he was a Gond and belonged to the sub-caste of Gavate Gorid. He stated that he was a Head Master of the Basic School at Kadholi and that there were no students in his school belonging to the Gond (Mana) community and that he did not know whether there was any sub-caste of Manas among Gonds. He admitted that he had made no enquiry whether in fact there was a sub-caste of Mana amongst Gonds. Trimbak Dhok asserted that Mana was an independent community which had no relation with Kunbis and that there was amongst the Gonds no sub-caste or sub-tribe called Mana. But his assertion was based on no personal knowledge or information or any study of the members of the Gond community. Tulshiram Dodke deposed that there was an agitation by the members of the Mana community for their inclusion in the Schedule to the Scheduled Tribes Order. He stated that he had made representations to the Ministers of the Madhya Pradesh Government and was responsible for starting agitation for recognition of Manas as a Scheduled Tribe and that ultimately the Government accepted their claim. The evidence of this witness is not supported by any documentary evidence. If representations had been made and the Government had accepted to their claim, some documentary evidence in that behalf would have been forthcoming. The evidence of witness Krishna Kate who claimed that Manas were treated by the Government of Maharashtra as part of the Gond community and were granted certain benefits on that footing, does not assist the claim of the appellant, and no reliance was placed thereon.

10. That there are sub-tribes amongst the Gonds is not denied. Names of some of those sub-tribes are included in Entry 12 of Item 5 of Part VII-A of the Schedule is also a matter which is beyond dispute. The customs, manners, form of worship, and dress of the members of the Maratha Mana community are all different from the customs, manners, form of worship and dress of the Gonds. No rational explanation has been suggested why the Parliament should have, while including under Entry 12 several sub-tribes of Gonds, specified Mana under that entry, if Manas had no affinity at all with Gonds. The appellant was uncertain about the claim that he was making. In the nomination paper filed by him he claimed to be a Gond (Mang). His subsequent explanation that he did so because the rules so required cannot be accepted as true. He relied upon the Mana in the belief that all Manas were intended to be given the benefit of the privileges conferred by the Scheduled Tribes Order. He described himself as a Gond (Mana). Realizing thereafter that his community had no affinity with the Gonds he stated that he was not a Gond; that he had nothing to do with the Gonds, and that his community had also nothing to do with the Gonds. He rested his claim solely upon the description in Entry 12 in Item 5 of Part VII-A of the Schedule. But the form in which the entry is made prima facie indicates that in the view of the legislature, Mana was a sub-tribe of Gonds and a Mana who was a member of the sub-tribe of Gonds alone was entitled to the privileges conferred by the Schedule to the Scheduled Tribes Order.

11. We therefore agree with the High Court that the appellant, merely because, he belonged to the Mana community amongst the Marathas, is not eligible to stand as a candidate for election to the Maharashtra legislative assembly from the reserved seat of the Armori constituency in Gadchiroli tahsil of Chanda District.

12. The appeal therefore fails and is dismissed with costs.