SANJAY KUMAR Vs. VERSUS STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In terms of the previous direction of this court the State Election Commissioner appeared in court and explained to the satisfaction of the court the manner he has acted.

(2.) The learned Advocate General, appearing on behalf of the State, submitted that although Article 243D of the Constitution directs reservation to be made for schedule caste and schedule tribe candidates but there is no such mandate in so far as backward class candidates are concerned. He has drawn my attention to sub-Article (6) of Article 243D of the Constitution where it has been provided that Article 243D shall not prevent the Legislature of a State from making any provision for reservation of seats in any Panchayat or offices of Chairpersons in the Panchayats at any level in favour of backward class citizens.

(3.) The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has drawn my attention to Form II as prescribed by the Rules. There is no dispute that in Form II there is a direction to count the heads of the backward classes. Form II has been prescribed by Rule 15 of the Rules. Rule 15 of the Rules, however, does not direct counting of heads. In such view of the matter, there is no conflict in between sub-Rule (3) of Rule 9 read with proviso to sub-Rule (1) of Rule 11 of the Rules on the one hand and Rule 15 of the Rules on the other. A direction contained in the Form as to counting of the heads of backward classes when there is no mandate in respect thereof in the Rules did not make the Election Commissioner or the Government responsible to count the heads of the backward classes. It may be possible that the Panchayat, where the largest number of population reside, may not have even one backward class candidate and as such it may be difficult to have an eligible candidate to be elected at such a Panchayat but then we are not concerned herewith the vires of the Rules, but whether the Rules have been complied with in toto by the Government and the Election Commission. Then again in the absence of head count, which can only be done by the Central Government, the safest way would be to assume that adequate number of backward class citizens will reside in the larger populated areas.