YELLAPPA Vs. CHIEF SECRETARY, GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Hon'ble Supreme Court speaking Hon'ble Justice R.C. Lahoti, in the case of Election Commission of India v. Ashok Kumar And Others reported in (2000) 8 SCC 216, has, at paragraphs 16 and 28 of the judgment, observed thus:

(2.) In these writ petitions, the petitioners have challenged the Notification No. PRA/AA/KA/CHUNAVANE/29/2021-2022 dtd. 27/1/2022 reserving of posts for Office of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation, to the Scheduled Caste and General categories respectively, and also challenged the inclusion of additional names in the voters list, dtd. 27/1/2022. Since common issues are involved in all these writ petitions, the same are clubbed, heard together and are disposed of by this common order.

(3.) It is the case of the petitioner in WP No. 202488 of 2021 that, the petitioner is an elected Corporator from Ward No. 53 of Kalaburagi. It is stated that the Office of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Municipal Corporation in the State of Karnataka have to be filled up as per the provisions of Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 (for short, hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') and the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Election) (Amendment) Rules, 2014 (for short, hereinafter referred to as the 'Rules'). Sec. 10 of the Act provides for reservation of Offices of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the State of Karnataka. Proviso to Sec. 10 of the Act, contemplates that the posts to the aforementioned Offices shall be allotted by rotation in the prescribed manner as per Article 243-T of the Constitution of India. To facilitate reservation to various categories, the Government has issued notification dtd. 26/12/2019 under Rule 73-A of the Rules. As per the said Notification, the Office of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation, is reserved to Scheduled Tribe and Backward Class-A category. Thereafter, the respondent-State issued another Notification dtd. 11/2/2021, reserving the posts of Office of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation as per the guidelines under Government Order dtd. 21/1/2021, resulting in reservation of posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor to General (woman) and Backward Class-B categories, respectively. It is the case of the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 202488 of 2021 that, no post has been reserved for the candidate belonging to Scheduled Tribe in Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation till today and in view of the same, the Scheduled Tribe community has been discriminated while following the rotation policy by the respondent-State and as such, the petitioner has challenged the Notification dtd. 11/2/2021 in the said writ petition, inter alia seeking quashing of the Notification dtd. 27/1/2022 issued by the Respondent-State.