What is in a name? A lot apparently, as the State of Odisha litigated right up to the Supreme Court based on a missing “s”, for denying the benefit of Scheduled Tribe status to “Kuli” community.

However, a Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta eventually turned down the State’s case holding that the “Kuli” community is covered by the word “Kulis” which was only intended to be used as a plural in English for “Kuli”.

The question before the Court was whether the tribe mentioned as “Kulis” in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act, 1976 in Schedule II in Part XII at Item No. 42 includes persons belonging to the “Kuli” community.

The stand of the appellant, the State of Odisha was that since in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Order, the tribe which has been declared to be a Scheduled Tribe is “Kulis”, the members of the “Kuli” community cannot take benefit of being declared as Scheduled Tribes. It was further submitted that no court has the power to change or modify what is stated in the Presidential Order and later in the Act of Parliament and, therefore, the High Court erred in holding that “Kulis” would include “Kuli”.

Shibashish Misra, counsel appearing for the State of Odisha, submitted that in view of the judgment delivered in State of Maharashtra v. Milind no court or authority has any jurisdiction to add any tribe or caste. It was his contention that since the tribe, which had been declared to be a Scheduled Tribe is “Kulis”, the courts cannot give an interpretation that persons belonging to “Kuli” community are also entitled to the benefit of being declared Scheduled Tribe.

On the other hand, Senior Counsel V Giri appearing for the respondents submitted that “Kulis” is only a plural for “Kuli” and not a separate caste.

The Court proceeded to analyse the background leading upto the present case. The first Order which was placed on record was the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 and in Part VI the Schedule, dealing with the State of Odisha at Item No. 31, the tribe “Kulis” had been declared to be a Scheduled Tribe for the entire State of Odisha.

The next relevant document was the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Lists (Modification) Order, 1956. As per that, “Kuli” was declared to be a Scheduled Caste in Sambalpur district only. In the very same order in Part IX of Schedule III, “Kulis” continued to be declared to be a Scheduled Tribe throughout the State of Odisha.

Subsequently, the Parliament replaced the Presidential Orders by the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act, 1976. This Act was enacted for the purposes of inclusion and exclusion from the lists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of certain castes and tribes. In Schedule I at Part XIII dealing with the State of Odisha, the caste “Kuli” was no longer mentioned.

In Schedule II at Part XII dealing with the Scheduled Tribes, the tribe “Kulis” was notified to be a Scheduled Tribe for the whole of the State of Odisha. The Hindi version of this Order described the tribe “Kuli” (ककलल)  as a Scheduled Tribe.

This led to the present dispute.

The Court noted that persons belonging to “Kuli” community have for long been claiming that they are part of the “Kulis” tribe and the Orrisa High Court has always held that the term “Kulis” is nothing but a plural for the term “Kuli” and has consistently held that “Kuli” are a part and parcel of “Kulis” tribe.

The first judgment in this regard was delivered in Sebaram Meher v. The State of Orissa wherein a Division Bench of the High Court held that there is no difference between the terms “Kuli” and “Kulis” because it was not disputed that there is no separate community known as “Kulis” in the State of Odisha. This view was followed in a large number of judgments including the judgment under appeal, the Supreme Court noted.

The Court then observed that the counsel for the State could not place any material before the Court to show that there is a separate community by the name “Kulis”. The documents which were referred to were the documents relating to the period when “Kuli” were declared to be Scheduled Caste in the Sambalpur district whereas “Kulis” were declared to be a tribe in the entire State.

The Court noted that the documents referred to by both the parties indicated that “Kuli” is a community of weavers who were earlier forest dwellers. This community is engaged in the weaving of very coarse type of cloth.

In none of the documents could the Court find any material to show that “Kuli” or “Kulis” are two different castes or tribes dealing with different vocations. In all the documents they have been dealt with synonymously, the Court said.

The Court also proceeded to place reliance on the 24th Report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.  In this Report, prepared in December 1977, dealing with the State of Odisha, it has been observed:

“…..In case of Orissa, the Kuli community which was earlier   declared   as   Scheduled   Caste   in   Sambalpur district has been deleted from the list as Kulis are already declared as Scheduled Tribes throughout the State…..”

This, the Court held, was a clear indication that the Commissioner was of the view that “Kuli” community which was one of the communities declared to be Scheduled Castes in Sambalpur district, now fell in the category of Scheduled Tribe.

Further, the Court took the view that it was apparent that the term “Kulis” used in the Order is in the nature of plural for “Kuli”.

“This becomes even more apparent from the various documents referred to above wherein   the   terms “Kulis” and “Kuli” have been used interchangeably and though the caste or tribe has been described as “Kuli”, the members of the community, when dealt with together, have been described as “Kulis”.”

The State has failed to place any material on record to show that there is any caste or tribe by the name “Kulis”.  The Court, therefore held that it was apparent that both in the Presidential Order and in the Act, the term “Kulis” was used as plural for the term “Kuli”.

Resorting to an interpretation that “Kuli” community does not fall within the ambit of “Kulis” would nullify the intention of the Parliament to give the benefit of Scheduled Tribe status to “Kuli” since there is no community by the name Kulis and the only community is Kuli. The President and later Parliament while using the term “Kulis” only intended it to be used as plural for the word “Kuli”. Any other interpretation would mean that nobody would be able to take benefit of belonging to “Kulis” tribe.

“…we are of the considered view that we cannot give such an interpretation to a Caste or Tribe mentioned in the list of notified Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes which would have the effect of nullifying the intention of the Parliament.  In the present case, earlier the President and later Parliament had included “Kulis” in the list of Scheduled Tribe.  It has been found that there is no community by the name “Kulis” in the State of Odisha. The only community is “Kuli”. If we do not include “Kuli” in “Kulis”, the net result would be that we would be deleting a Tribe from the list of Scheduled Tribes. This also no Court or Tribunal is entitled to. We have to read the entries in the list in a manner which is consistent with the intention of the Parliament.”

Thus, the Court ruled that the term “Kulis” in the English version will include members of the “Kuli” community and proceeded to dismiss the appeals.

Read the judgment below.