VILAS Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this writ petition has sought for quashing the Notification dated 4-3-2016 reserving the office of President of Nippani City Municipal Council to SC (Woman) category. Further, the petitioner has also sought direction to respondent Nos. 1 and 2 to conduct election to the office of the President of Nippani, CMC, as per notification dated 24-2-2016.

(2.) Petitioner is the elected councillor of Nippani C.M.C. from Ward No. 26 which was reserved for the SC category. He was the aspirant for the office of the President of C.M C. Nippani. The State Government following Sec. 42 (2-A) (a) of the Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1964, provided reservation for the officer of President and Vice-President to Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe. Sec. 42 (2-A)(a) contemplates that such number of offices of President and Vice-President in the State for the persons Ire-longing to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the number of such offices bearing as nearly as may be the same proportion to the total number of offices in the State as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the. State or of the Scheduled Tribes in the State bears to the total population of the State. Further, such number of offices of President and Vice-President in the State which shall as nearly as may be one-third of the total number of offices of President and Vice-President in the State for the persons belonging to the Backward Classes. Among the backward classes, 80% of total number of such offices shall be reserved for BCA category and remaining 20% of the offices shall be reserved for the persons belonging to the BCB category. Further, 50% of the seats shall be reserved for the Women category in all categories. Further, reservation of the offices shall not exceed 50% of the total number of offices of the President and Vice-President of the Municipal Councils in the State. The State Government amended the Karnataka Municipalities (President and Vice-President) (Election) Rules, 1965 (Amendment) Rules 2007 and (Amendment) Rules, 2013. As per the amended Rule 13 of the Karnataka Municipalities (President and Vice-President) (Election) (Amendent) Rules, 2015, the seats are reserved for the various categories as per Schedule-I which reads as under: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_443_LAWS(KAR)3_2016.htm</FRM>

(3.) For enforcement for the above reservation, the State Government has issued the guidelines dated 5-2-2016. As per the guidelines, the reservation of the offices of President and Vice-President of the City Municipal Councils as specified by the Government as per Amendment to sub-section (2-A) of Sec. 42, the offices of Presidents and Vice-President of the City Municipal Councils in the State shall be rotated to different categories viz., Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Caste (Women), Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Tribe (Women), Backward Class-A, Backward Class-A (Women), Backward Class-B, Backward Class-B (Women), General, General (Women). As per the guideline, the cycle of rotation shall commence from the first term, after first ordinary election held after 1-6-1994 and the said rotation complete when all categories are represented. Thereafter, a fresh cycle of rotation shall be operated. The officer of the President and Vice-President of City Municipal Councils reserved in the previous seven categories, shall as far as possible not to be allotted to the same category until the cycle of rotation is completed in respect of the such category.