S. B. MAJMUDAR, S. H. SHETH, J.

( 1 ) THIS petition has been filed by eight petitioners who are voters at the elections to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Notification dated March 20 1980 issued by the Government of Gujarat is challenged by them. It relates to the division of two existing wards and the reallocation of seats to them.

( 2 ) UNDER sub-sec. (2) of sec. 5 of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act 1949 the State Government has got the authority to decide how many councillors shall be elected from each of the election wards. Under sub-sec. (3) of sec. 5 the State Government has the power to specify the number and boundaries of the wards into which the city shall be divided for the purpose of election of the councillors and to determine the number of councillors to be elected from each ward.

( 3 ) WHAT the State Government by issuing the impugned notification has done is as follows. The Municipal Corporation shall consist of 105 councillors elected at ward elections. Secondly it has specified 36 wards into which the city of Ahmedabad shall be divided for the purpose of ward elections of councillors and has defined boundaries of each ward. Thirdly it has specified number of councillors to be elected from each ward. Fourthly it has provided for reservation of seats for the scheduled castes as well as for the scheduled tribes. It is a common ground between the parties that except dividing the Wadaj ward into Wadaj East and Wadaj West and Paldi ward into Paldi East and Paldi West no other change has been effected in the constitution of the election wards. In other words other wards remain as they were at the last general elections to the Municipal Corporation which were held in December 1975. Another change which the State Government has made is to allocate three seats to Wadaj East and two seats to Wadaj West totalling at five as against six (including one reserved for scheduled castes) which were allocated to the composite Wadaj ward earlier. This one seat which has been taken away from the two Wadaj wards now which earlier constituted one Wadaj ward appears to have been added to Gandhigram ward which earlier had four seats allocated to it as against five now. These two changes which have been effected by the impugned notification are challenged by the petitioners in this petition.

( 4 ) BEFORE we proceed to deal with the merits of the case and the contentions which have been raised on behalf of the petitioners it is necessary to note that this litigation is in the real sense of the term a luxury litigation. We say so because division into four of the two wards out of 34 election wards is hardly going to effect the political fortunes of any political party. Secondly it is difficult to imagine that allocation of five seats to Wadaj ward now as against six which were allocated to it earlier and the apparent allocation of one more seat to Gandhigram now will in any manner tilt the balance in the fortunes of political parties at the next general election to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation due to be held in ordinary course in December 1980.

( 5 ) IN April 1975 after which the last general elections to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation were held Ahmedabad city was divided into 34 election wards. 105 councillors were required to be elected at these 34 ward elections. Out of 105 seats 92 were general scats and 13 reserved for the members of scheduled castes. In October 1977 a proposal was placed before the Standing Committee of the Corporation to reconstitute election wards in such a manner that no election ward shall have more than three seats. Before considering this proposal on merits the Standing Committee invited the Municipal Commissioner to make his report on the subject. On 3rd January 1978 the Commissioner submitted his report to the Standing Committee. In his opinion it was not opportune to readjust the boundaries of election wards as was proposed. On 4th August 1979 the Municipal Commissioner drew the

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