The reservation and allotment of seats for Panchayat Elections must be made in accordance with the provisions of the Jharkhand Panchayat Raj Act, 2001 and the Jharkhand Panchayat Election Rules, 2001.

JUDGMENT :

RAJESH SHANKAR, J.

1. The present writ petition has been filed for quashing part of the list dated 25.09.2021 prepared by the respondent No. 2 whereby the post of Mukhia of Ghaghari Panchayat has been reserved for ‘Scheduled Castes’ (Woman) and this is the third consecutive term when the said Panchayat seat of Mukhia has been reserved for the candidate belonging to Scheduled Caste which is against the provisions of Section 21(A) of the Jharkhand Panchayat Raj Act, 2001 [hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act, 2001’] and Rule 9(c) of the Jharkhand Panchayat Election Rules, 2001 [hereinafter referred to as ‘the Rules 2001’]. Further prayer has been made for issuance of direction upon the respondents to consider the case of the petitioner for reservation of the seat/post of Mukhia of Ghaghari Panchayat for ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBC).

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that on 25.09.2021, the respondent No. 2 published the list of reserved constituencies for the post of Mukhia to be elected by way of forthcoming third Panchayat Election (General) whereby the constituency of Ghaghari Panchayat has been reserved for the Scheduled Caste (Woman) in a most arbitrary and discriminatory manner ignoring the fact that the largest population in Ghaghari Panchayat belongs to Other Backward Classes (OBC) whereas the second largest population in the said Panchayat belongs to Scheduled Caste. Section 21-A of the Act, 2001 and Rule 9(c) of the Rules, 2001 provide that the post of Mukhia shall be reserved for the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes and women in different constituencies on rotation basis, however, the post of Mukhia of Ghaghari Panchayat has been reserved for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes for the third consecutive term.

3. Learned counsel for the respondents submits that Article 243-O of the Constitution of India has restricted the Courts from intervening in the matter of delimitation of Panchayat constituencies or the allotment of seats to such constituencies and as such the present writ petition is not maintainable. On bare perusal of Section 21-A of the Act, 2001 and the Rules, 2001, it would be evident that the percentage of reservations has to be given firstly to ST category then SC category and thereafter rest of the seats are to be reserved for OBC category, subject to the upper limit of 50% of the total seat. Further, at least 50% reservation has to be given to the women in each category including General (Other) category. The allotment of all seats has to be made on rotation basis by the District Magistrate as per Rule 15 of Rules, 2001 under the supervision, direction and control of the State Election Commission. On the basis of percentage of population in Sagma Block, total number of seats for the post of Mukhia are 5. Out of these, two posts are reserved for the SC as per their population in Sagma Panchayat Samiti (Block) and rest three posts are reserved for other categories as per their population in the said Panchayat Samiti. In the year 2015, election of 5 numbers of above posts of Mukhia was held on the basis of the percentage of their respective population wherein as per second proviso to Rule 11(1) of the Rules, 2001, the SC was allotted 2 seats whereas Others (General) were allotted 3 seats. In the year 2021, the population being the same, the reservation is also to be in the same manner. Hence, the allotment is as follows: (i) Backward Classes (ii) Others (General) (iii) Scheduled Tribes and (iv) Scheduled Castes on the basis of rotation in descending and cyclic order. As such, the ‘Others’ (General) have been allotted 3 seats and the SC have been allotted 2 seats. In the first Panchayat Election held in the year 2010, the rotation for these 5 seats of Mukhia in Sagma Block was as follows: (i) Scheduled Tribes (ii) Scheduled Castes (iii) Backward Classes (iv) Others (General) which was changed in the year 2015 as (i) Sche