STATE OF KERALA Vs. NOUFAL BABU E.K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ appeals are filed by the State and its officials, and the Kerala State Election Commission as captioned above, challenging the judgments dated 16-11-2020, 19.11.2020 and 20.11.2020 rendered by the learned single Judge in various writ petitions, whereby the learned single Judge allowed the writ petitions and directed the Kerala State Election Commission to recast the reservation by rotation to the office of the President and Chairpersons of the local bodies in question, pursuant to the notifications issued by the State Election Commission dated 03.11.2020 in that regard, which is a process of the General Elections notified by the State Election Commission. Though one of the writ petitions was filed earlier to the notification issued by the State Election Commission and the other writ petitions were filed on 06.11.2020 i.e., the date of the announcement of elections by the State Election Commission, the judgment was passed on 16.11.2020 after the notification of election issued by the State Government on 12.11.2020.

(2.) The writ petitions were filed either by the candidates or voters of different wards/constituencies in regard to various tiers of Panchayats and Municipalities. basically challenging the legality and correctness of the consecutive or successive reservation made by the Kerala State Election Commission to the Offices of the Chairpersons and the President of those local bodies in the General Election notified by the State Election Commission. What was under challenge in the writ petitions were notifications issued by the State Election Commission dated 03.11.2020 under the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994 and the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 notifying the reservations made to the offices of Chairpersons and the President of the local authorities against SC/ST and women as contemplated under the said statutes, and Parts IX and IXA of the Constitution of India dealing with Panchayats and Municipalities. The general election to the local authorities was announced by the Kerala State Election Commission on 06.11.2020 apparently by convening a Press Conference and the election was notified on 12.11.2020. The notifications dated 03. 11.2020 were issued by the Kerala State Election Commission in continuation of the notifications issued by the State Government dated 16.07.2020 in terms of the provisions of the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994 and the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, by which the required number of offices were reserved for women, Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes women and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from among the total seats set apart to the local bodies in the State. The State Election Commission, accordingly, distributed the offices allotted by the State Government by reserving the offices to the post of Chairpersons/President of the local bodies.

(3.) The basic grievance advanced by the writ petitioners were that the reservations made to the offices of Chairpersons and Presidents have not followed the policy of rotation and reservation, so far as the Panchayats are concerned in contemplation of Article 243-D of the Constitution of India r/w Section 153 of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 and Article 243-T of the Constitution of India read with Section 10 of the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994. Therefore, it was contended that the reservation made without following the rotation principle and successively reserving the same constituencies for the offices of President/Chairpersons to the local bodies, were arbitrary and illegal, liable to be interfered with by the Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.