Law:

Section:

. JUDGMENT Deepak Gupta, CJ. - This Full Bench has been constituted to answer the following questions referred to it. "(1) Whether, a member of a Scheduled Tribe as defined in Clause 25 of Article 366 of the Constitution of India is entitled to grant of exemption under section 10(26) only when he is working in any area specified in Part I or Part II of the Table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution or in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura or when he is posted anywhere in the country? (2) What is the scope and ambit of the words "residing" in the opening portion of section 10(26) of the Act? (3) Whether, a person belonging to the Scheduled Tribes and falling within the meaning of Clause 25 of Article 366 but not originally belonging to the areas specified in Part I or Part II of the Table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and not belonging to the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura is entitled to benefit of section 10(26) when posted in such areas? (4) Whether, a person who is a member of the Scheduled Tribes and belongs to the areas specified in Part I or Part II of the Table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution or belongs to the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura is entitled to benefit of exemption under section 10(26) of the Act when he is posted outside these areas? (5) Whether, a member of the Scheduled Tribes is bound to obtain a certificate of exemption from the Income Tax Authorities in terms of section 197 of the Act? (6) Whether, such certificate, if obtained, is valid for the entire service career of the member of the Scheduled Tribes or not?" 2. To appreciate the contentions raised by the parties and answer these questions it would be apposite to refer to Clause 25 of Article 366 of the Constitution of India which reads as follows : "(25) Scheduled Tribes means such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution." Reference…