G.P.Mathur, U.S.Tripathi, JJ. - (1.) This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed seeking three reliefs, namely, quashing of the order of reservation of seats, dated 18.5.2000, quashing the election process Including declaration of result dated 26.6.2000 and a writ of mandamus declaratlng appointment of Sub-Divisional Magistrate as Prescribed Authority under U. P. Panchayat Raj (Settlement of Dispute of Election) Rules, 1994, as illegal.
(2.) The petitioners are members of Gram Panchayat Dara Kot Tala, Block Punwaraka, district Saharanpur. They claim that the office of Pradhan of Gram Panchayat Dara Kot Tala was reserved in favour of a Scheduled Caste woman candidate in the elections held in the year. 1995. The State Election Commission issued a notification on 18.5.2000. wherein the office of Pradhan of Gram Panchayat Dara Kot Tala. referred to above was again reserved in favour of a Scheduled Caste woman candidate. The election was held in the third week of June, 2000 and the result was declared on 26.6.2000.
(3.) The principal contention urged by the learned counsel for the petitioners is that the reservation of the office of the Pradhan of Gram Panchayat Dara Kot Tala for a Scheduled Caste woman candidate in the election held fn dune, 2000 was Illegal as the principle of rotation provided under Article 243D of the Constitution was not followed. Clause 4 of Article 243D reads as follows : "(4) The office of the chairperson in the panchayats at the village or any other level shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women in such manner as the Legislature of a State may. by law. provide : Provided that the number of offices of chairperson reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the panchayats at each level in any State shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of such offices in the panchayats at each level 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 : Provided further that not less than one third of the total number of offices of chairpersons in the panchayats at each level shall be reserved for women : Provided also that the number of offices reserved under this clause shall be allotted by rotation to different panchayat at each level.";