GOVINDARAJU Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a member of Sogane Grama Panchayat, Shivamogga Taluk and District is aggrieved of the fact that the post of President of the Gram Panchayat is reserved in the impugned notification for General (Female). It is submitted that Sogane Grama Panchayat was established and added into Shivamogga Taluk commencing from the year 2015. In the year 2015 reservation was given to General (Female) and in the year 2020 it was reserved for Scheduled Caste community. Now again the post is reserved for General (Female). It is pointed out from the Tabular statement that in Kunchenahalli Grama Panchayat although there is only one post for General category, the post of President has been reserved for the 7th time to General category commencing from 1993. It is pointed out that from the last three terms the post of President has been continuously reserved for General category. It is also pointed out that Thuppur Grama Panchayat which was also included along with Sogane Grama Panchayuat into Shivamogga Taluk commencing from the 2015, there has been rotation in reservation and there has been no repetition.

(2.) Learned Additional Advocate General would submit that Sogane Grama Panchayat cannot be compared with Kunchenahalli Grama Pacnhayat for the simple reason that Kunchenahalli has only one General post and there is no General (Female) post available at Kunchenahalli. Insofar as the Sogane Grama Panchayat is concerned there are 5 members from the General category, amongst which 2 is to be reserved for General (Female). Moreover, in terms of the guidelines issued by the State Election Commission, which is in the form of Government Order dtd. 25/5/2023, the Deputy Commissioner is required to commence rotation in reservation of the Scheduled Caste category first. Thereafter he is required to take up Scheduled Tribe category followed by the BCA, then BCB and thereafter the remaining have to be considered for allotment for General category reservations and there again General (Female) will take priority. While pointing out to the worksheet maintained by the Deputy Commissioner, it is submitted that after allotment of all the posts for Scheduled Caste and scheduled Tribe, BCA, BCB, thereafter the allotment for General category reservations has been taken up by the Deputy Commissioner. Since Sogane has 5 posts in the General category, it was directly picked for reservation of General (Female) category.

(3.) Learned Additional Advocate General submits that commencing from the year 2020 a computer system known as GPPVP application is put in place for rotation in reservation and human intervention is not permissible. Learned Additional Advocate General would therefore submit the Deputy Commissioner has followed the guidelines which is in the form of a Government Order dtd. 25/5/2023 which provides the method and steps which are required to be followed.