1. These two Writ Appeals have been filed against the judgment of a learned Single Judge of this Court dated 8 91980 allowing O.P No. 2636 of 1980 filed by the common respondents in these two writ appeals and quashing the notification Ext. P2 dated 24 111979 issued by the Director of Municipalities, Trivandrum, effecting a de-limitation of the wards of the newly constituted Pathanamthitta Municipality and specifying which amongst those wards are the reserved wards for women and for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as well as the order Ext. P3 passed by the Director of Municipalities rejecting a representation dated 23 21980 filed by the petitioner requesting that the fixation of ward No. 20 as the reserved ward for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be modified.

2. Pathanamthitta was a Panchayat until recently but on 25 91978 the Government ordered it to be constituted into a Municipality. S.56 of the Kerala Municipalities Act„ hereinafter called the Act, provides: "56. Election of municipal councillors:

(1) For the purposes of election of councillors to a municipal council the Government, after consulting the municipal council and after previous publication and hearing of objections, if any, may, by notification

(a) divide the municipality into as many wards as there are councillors notified under sub-section (1) of S.7:

Provided that the population of each ward shall as far as possible, be equal:

(b) determine the ward or wards in which the seat or seats, if any, shall be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under sub-section (3) of S.7 and for women under sub-section (6) of S.7. The powers of the State Government under the aforesaid Section have been delegated to the Director of Municipalities By the notification Ext. P1 dated 29-6-1979 the Director of Municipalities published proposals relating to the de-limitation of wards of the new Municipality of Pathanamthitta and also specifying therein which wards were proposed to be designated as reserved wards for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and for women. In the said notification ward No. 17 was shown as the ward proposed to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Ext. P1 contains the recital that if any person desired to submit or put forward any objections or representations concerning the de-limitation of wards proposed therein such objections or representations should be sent to the Director of Municipalities, Trivandrum, so as to reach him before 28-7-1979.

3. The writ petitioner is a person residing in the locality which falls within the proposed ward No. 20 of the new Municipality. According to him, he had the intention of standing for election for membership of the Municipal Council from the said ward and his chances were quite bright. All those hopes were however completely shattered when the petitioner found that by the final notification issued as per Ext P2 dated 24-11-1979, ward No. 20 has been fixed as the reserved ward for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with the consequence that the petitioner who is not a member of the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community is denied an opportunity to stand for election from the said ward. According to the petitioner the procedure followed by the Director of Municipalities (2nd respondent in the O P.) in finalising the de-limitation of wards was illegal inasmuch as he had not complied with the mandatory requirement of S.56(1) of the Act that there should be a due publication of the objections put forward, to the proposals contained in the preliminary notification and a public hearing of the objections before the proposals are finalised. It was mainly on this ground that the petitioner sought to quash Exts. P2 and P3.

4. The learned Single Judge upheld the contention of the petitioner that under S 56 (1) of the Act there is a mandatory obligation cast on the authority effecting the delimitation to publish the objections received in response to the preliminary