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2017 Supreme(Kar) 379
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU
RAGHVENDRA S. CHAUHAN, J.
B.N. Srinivas S/o. Late P. A. Nanjundappa – Appellant
Vs.
State of Karnataka Represented by its Secretary, Urban Development Department, Karnataka Government Secretariat - Respondent
Writ Petition No.12419/2017 (LBELE)
Decided on : 23-03-2017
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Sri V. Lakshminarayana, Senior Counsel for Sri Nagaraj N. Naidu, Advocate
For the Respondent: Sri V. Sreenidhi, AGA
Headnote:KARNATAKA MUNICIPALITIES ACT, 1964 – Section 42(2-A) & Karnataka Municipalities (President and Vice-President) Election Rules, 1965, Rule 13-A(2) – Municipal election – Challenge against reservation of post of President for General-Woman category – Plea of petitioner as to repetition of reservation of seats with reference to reservation in previous year – Prohibition as to completion of cycle of previous term, not absolute one – Rule 13-A(2), prohibits reservation of post for General-Woman category for two consecutive terms – Post of President reserved for sixth term and present term is eighth term – Reservation is not hit by bar contained in Rule 13-A(2) – Repetition in reservation, held, legal.
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, 1950 – Article 226 – Karnataka Municipalities Act (22 of 1964), Section 42(2A) & Karnataka Municipalities (President & Vice-President) Election Rules, 1965, Rule 13-A(2) – Maintainability of Writ Petition – Municipal election – Challenge against reservation of post of President for General-Woman category – Plea of petitioner as to repetition of reservation of seats with reference to reservation in previous year – Government Order Dated 05.02.2016 making exception in favour of General-Woman category, removing legal embargo as to repetition of reservation – Writ Petition is not maintainable.
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, 1950 – Articles 226, 243-ZG & Karnataka Municipalities Act (22 of 1964), Section 42(2A) & Karnataka Municipalities (President and Vice-President) Election Rules, 1965, Rule 13-A(2) – Writ petition challenging reservation of post of President for General-Woman category – Failure of petitioner in making strong case for Court's intervention – Petition filed day before election, merely subterfuge for delaying election proceedings – Petition is hit by prohibition under Article 243-ZG and not maintainable.
The petitioner, Mr. B.N. Srinivas, has challenged the legality of the Notification, dated 13.03.2017, issued by the respondent No.1, State of Karnataka, represented by its Secretary, Urban Development Department, and the Election Notice dated 15.03.2017, issued by the respondent No.3, Assistant Commissioner, Chikkaballapura. The petitioner has also prayed that a direction should be issued to the respondents to first issue a fresh provisional notification, and only after hearing the public at large, to issue a final notification for reserving the post of President and Vice-President for a particular reserved category.
2. The case revolves around the election of President and Vice-President of Town Municipal Council, Bagepalli. The election to the said post has a rather checkered history, which is as under:
After having won the election on 11.03.2013 from Ward No.19, the petitioner is a Councilor of the said TMC. In order to hold election to the post of President and Vice-President, the State Government had issued a Notification on 24.04.2016. According to the said Notification, while the post of President was reserved for General Category, the post of Vice-President was reserved for the category of BCB Woman (henceforth to be referred to as “BCB (W)”). However, the said Notification was challenged by one Smt. V. Vanaja before this Court by filing W.P.No.41101/2016.
During the pendency of the said writ petition, a fresh Notification was issued on 04.03.2016, whereby the post of President was declared to be for the category of General Woman (“GMW”, for short). Since the present petitioner, before this Court, was aggrieved by the change of category for the post of President from ‘General’ to ‘General Woman’, he filed a writ petition, namely W.P.No.47135/2016 before this Court.
Meanwhile, the petition filed by Smt. V. Vanaja, was decided by a learned Single Judge of this Court by order dated 29.08.2016. The learned Single Judge had quashed the Notification dated 24.02.2016, qua, Bagepalli, and had directed the respondents to reserve the seat of President, or Vice-President in favour of Scheduled Caste Woman (“SCW”, for short), and to reissue the Notification.
Since the said direction was given by the learned Single Judge, on 15.09.2016 the present petitioner withdrew his writ petition, challenging the Notification dated 04.03.2016. Since the present petitioner, Mr. B.N. Srinivas, was a respondent in the case filed by Smt. Vanaja, he filed a Writ Appeal, namely W.A.No.3699/2016 against the order dated 29.08.2016.
3. During the pendency of writ appeal, and in consonance with the directions issued by the learned Single Judge, on 27.10.2016, the State Government issued a fresh Notification, qua, Bagepalli Town Municipal Council. According to the said Notification, while the post of President continued to be kept for GMW, the post of Vice-President was now reserved for the category of Scheduled Caste Woman (‘SCW’, for short).
4. By judgment dated 13.01.2017, the learned Division Bench allowed the writ appeal filed by the present petitioner, and held that the direction issued by the learned Single Judge for reserving the seat of President and Vice-President in favour of the SCW candidate could not have been issued. It further directed the concerned authority “to take a decision in the matter and to issue a Notification in accordance with law”.
5. Since the petitioner was also aggrieved by the new Notification dated 27.10.2016, which was issued during the pendency of the writ appeal, he challenged the same by filing a writ petition, namely W.P.No.56091/2016. The said writ petition was listed before this Court on 13.02.2017. By order dated 13.02.2017, this Court directed the respondents to carry out the directions issued by the learned Division Bench, namely “to issue a fresh Notification in accordance with law”. Consequently, the respondents have issued a Notification dated 13.03.2017, whereby the post of President is still kept for the ca
