B. Manohar, J.

The petitioners in these writ petitions have challenged the Notification dated 04.03.2016 insofar as reserving office of the President of Sadalaga Town Municipal Council to BCA category is concerned. Further, the petitioners have also sought for direction to respondent No. 1 to conduct election as per the notification dated 24.02.2016.

2. In the writ petitions, the petitioners have contended that they are the elected members of the Town Municipal Council, Sadalaga in the election held in the year 2013. As per notification dated 24.02.2016 the office of the President was reserved for BCA (Woman) category. However, by subsequent notification dated 04.03.2016 the State Govt, has modified the said notification and office was reserved for BCA category. Hence, these writ petitions are filed.

3. The State Government following Section 42 (2-A) (a) of the Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1964, provided reservation for the office of President and Vice-President to Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe. Section 42 (2-A) (a) contemplates that such number of offices of President and Vice-President in the State for the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the number of such offices bearing as nearly as may be the same proportion to the total number of offices in the State 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. Further, such number of offices of President and Vice-President in the State which shall as nearly as may be one-third of the total number of offices of President and Vice-President in the State for the persons belonging to the (Contd. on Column 2) Backward Classes. Among the backward classes, 80% of total number of such offices shall be reserved for BCA category and remaining 20% of the offices shall be reserved for the persons belonging to the BCB category. Further, 50% of the seats shall be reserved for the Women category in all categories. Further, reservation of the offices shall not exceed 50% of the total number of offices of the President and Vice-President of the Municipal Councils in the State. The State Government amended the Karnataka Municipalities (President and Vice-President) (Election) Rules, 1965 (Amendment), Rules, 2007 and (Amendment) Rules, 2013. As per the amended Rule 13 of the Karnataka Municipalities (President and Vice-President) (Election) (Amendment), Rules, 2015, the seats are reserved for the various categories as per Schedule I which reads as under:

Table-2

Reservation of offices in Town Municipal Councils

Sl. No.	Category	President	Vice-President
1	SC	10	10
2	SC-Women	9	9
3	ST	4	4
4	ST-Women	4	4
5	Backward Class-A	12	12
6	Backward Class-A (Women)	11	11
7	Backward Class-B	3	3
8	Backward Class-B (Women)	3	3
9	General	29	29
10	General-Women	28	28
	Total	113	113

4. For enforcement of the above reservation, the State Government has issued the guidelines dated 05.02.2016. As per the guidelines, the reservation of the offices of President and Vice-President of the Town Municipal Councils as specified by the Government as per Amendment to sub-section (2A) of Section 42, the offices of Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Town Municipal Councils in the State shall be rotated to different categories viz., Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Caste (Women), Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Tribe (Women), Backward Class-A, Backward Class-A(Women), Backward Class-B, Backward Class-B(Women), General, General (Women). As per the guideline, the cycle of rotation shall commence from the first term, after first ordinary election held after 01.06.1994 and the said rotation would complete when all categories are represented. Thereafter, a fresh cycle of rotation shall be operated. The office of the Presi