T RAMAKRISHNA REDDY Vs. DT COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ appeal is preferred by the third respondent in the writ petition against the Judgment and order of a learned single Judge, dismissing the writ petition, and at the same time, setting aside the election held in pursuance of an interim direction made in that petition.

(2.) Penumantra Mandal in West Godavari District comprises seventeen gram panchayats. Velagalavaripalem is one such. The Mandals came into existence in 1986. In this case, we are concerned with the validity of reservation of the Office of Sarpanch of Velagalavaripalem for Scheduled Caste under Section 12 of the A.P. Gram Panchayats Act, 1964 (for short,'the Act'. Section 12 provides that there shall be a Sarpanch for every gram panchayat, who shall be elected by all the voters in a gram panchayat from among themselves. The second proviso to sub-section (1) of Sec. 12 says that fifteen percent of the total number of offices of Sarpanch in a Mandal (comprising an area other than a Scheduled area) shall be reserved, by the , District Collector, by rotation from terra to term, for the members belonging to the Scheduled Castes in the manner prescribed. The proviso says that while so reserving, the Collector shall, as far as practicable, reserve such gram panchayats where the proportion of the population of the Scheduled Castes to the total population of the village is the largest. For this purpose, latest published census figures have to be taken into account. Rules have been framed prescribing the procedure to be followed in the matter of reservation. They are, the Andhra Pradesh Gram Panchayats (Reservation of the offices of Members and Sarpanchas of Gram Panchayats) Rules, 1986. These rules have been made by the Government in exercise of the rule-making power conferred upon it by the Act and are, therefore, statutory in character,. Part-II deals with the reservation of the offices of Sarpanchas. Rule 7, which is relevant for our purpose, reads thus :

(3.) According to the above provisions, three Offices of Gram Panchayats in this Mandal had to be reserved for Scheduled Castes. As stated above, the Mandate came into being in 1986. The Rules have also been made in 1986. This was the first occasion when Rule 7 was being applied and reservations made in this Mandal. If so, three gram panchayats with the largest Scheduled Caste population had to be selected. The Collector selected Alamuru, Satyavaram and Velagalavaripalem. While the reservatipn of the other two villages was not questioned, only the reservation of Velagalavaripalem was questioned by a voter by way of Writ Petition No. 2724/88. The writ petition was filed before the conduct of elections. The writ petition was admitted and an interim order was made by this Court, permitting all the persons, whether belonging to the Scheduled caste or not, to file their nominations and the election process was directed to go on that basis. In pursuance of the said order, the appellant herein, who does not belong to a Scheduled caste, filed his nomination. The second respondent in the Writ appeal, M. Kanakaratnam, who belongs to a Scheduled caste, also filed his nomination The appellant was declared elected, having secured the largest number of votes. After the appellant was declared elected, Kanakaratnam came forward with an application to implead him as well as the appellant as respondents to the writ petition. He wanted to support the reservation of Velagalavaripalem under Rule ? and wanted further that he being the only Scheduled Caste candidate, must be declared electe.l. This petition was ordered ; But it appears that without issuing a notice and without hearing the appellant the writ petition was disposed of, upholding the reservation. Once the reservation of Velagalavaripalem under Rule 7 was upheld, question arose what to do with the election already held in pursuance of, and on the basis of interim orders, Siace the election was held on the basis that the Office of the Sarpanch of the said village is an open one, the election was set aside by the learned single Judge, with a direction to conduct fresh elections treating the village as one reserved for Scheduled caste. The appellant, coming to know of the said order, has come forward with this writ appeal.