NAWAL SINGH Vs. GOVERNMENT OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Art.226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks a mandamus to set aside the election of the Councillors of the Municipal Councillors and to direct the State Government to hold the above election after a proper reservation of seats has been done in the Council for the members of the Schedule castes

(2.) THE Jora Municipality is a Class IV Municipality constituted under the provisions of the M.P. Municipalities Act, 1961 (Act No. 37 of 1961) (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). By section 19 of the Act it was provided that the Municipal Council shall consist of elected councillors and selected Councillors. The State Government is authorised to make rules regulating the mode of elections as also to fix the number of councillors for each Municipality. They are further authorised under section 29(1) (b) (iii) of the Act to fix in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India the number of seats to be reserved for the Schedule Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and allot them to the various Wards. For the Jora Municipality the Government had fixed the number of councillors as 15 out of whom 12 are to be elected and 3 to be selected under section 19 of the Act. In exercise of the powers conferred by para (3) of Clause (b) of sub -section (1) of section 29 of the Act, the State Government issued a notification published in the M.P. Rajpatra, dated 21 -3 -1972, fixing only one seat as reserved for the scheduled castes and alloted it to Ward No.5 of the Jora Municipality. Section 29 (1) (b)(3) reads as under: -

(3.) IT is not disputed that the total population of Jora Municipality at the relevant time was 10,007 out of which 1,184 were Scheduled Castes members according to the census report of 1971. The petitioner contend that in view of the above provisions, the Government should have fixed two seats for Scheduled Castes and since they had fixed only one seat, they have not fixed the number of Scheduled Castes -seats in the council in accordance with the proportion the scheduled castes population bears to the population of the Jora Municipality. This being a material illegality, it is urged, the election of the 12 Wards is vitiated. The question in the petition is whether or not the fixation of one seat for the Scheduled Castes out of the 15 seat Council of the Jora Municipality would be said to contravence sub -clause (iii) of Clause (b) of sub -section (1) of section 29 of the Act. According to the requirement of the above provisions the reservation in the Council must bear the same proporation as the general population of the Municipality.