1. “True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the Centre. It has to be worked from below by the people of every village.”

... Mahatma Gandhi

It is a dream of Mahatma, the Gram Raj or Panchayat Raj which has been in existence for centuries together in ancient India.

2. The elections in the local bodies are conducted by each State to make the third tier governance apart from Parliament and State Assembly. Panchayat Raj has been given recognition by virtue of amendment made to the Constitution, namely 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 with effect from 24.04.1993. It is the bottom-line governance, where people's participation in whole unit, namely Village, Union and District Level, is recognised. The local governance is more vital and important than the other two tiers. Therefore, all the norms and procedures prescribed for election to the State legislature and Parliament would deem to apply to the Local Body elections also.

3. Whether the contestants to the Local Bodies really represent the people or not is a Million-Dollar question? The person, who is to be elected by the people, has to be a person with integrity, moral values and ethics. Mahatma Gandhi said “When Panchayat Raj is established, public opinion will do what violence can never do”. However, in practice, there are many incidents of violence during elections and nomination of candidates with criminal background, who are known for criminal and violent activities and for commission of heinous offences. If this kind of people are allowed to contest the election, whether the dream of the father of the nation will be achieved ? Our policy makers have to ponder over the above issue.

4. Though the issue raised in this writ petition is not connected with the qualifications of the persons, who are contesting the elections, considering the past history, the way in which elections were conducted and the persons, who contested and won the elections, this Court is duty bound to record the grim reality.

5. The issue in this writ petition is challenge to the local body election on the ground that reservation to Scheduled Tribe (ST) population has not been made proportionate to their population in this election.

6. The petitioner is a political party which ruled the State for many years and the present main opposition in the State Assembly and is before this Court with a grievance that Constitutional mandate of providing proportionate reservation to Scheduled Tribes is not made in the Local Bodies Election as mandated under Article 243(D) and (T) of the Constitution of India, by proper provision in the Panchayat, Municipality and Corporation Wards; The total population of Scheduled Tribes, as per 2011 Census, published by the Union of India is 10,19,038, works out to 2.30% of total population and seats in the Local Bodies have not been reserved in proportion to the aforesaid percentage; The Government Orders in G.O.Ms. Nos.103, 105 and 106, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (PR.I) Department, though, are dated 16.09.2016, were made available only on 23.09.2016 and no sufficient time was given to the parties as well as to the candidates to get ready for the election and as already stated, the reservation has not been made as per the population. Hence, the above cited Government Orders have to be set aside and adequate reservation has to be made to Scheduled Tribes and thereafter, elections have to be conducted.

7. Mr. P.Wilson, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that for 2.30%, no Chairman post in Corporations has been reserved for Scheduled Tribes and similarly for other Local Bodies, namely Panchayat, Panchayat Union, District Union and Wards, less numbers have been reserved. Therefore, for lack of proportionate reservation to the Scheduled Tribe Population, the notifications issued for conducting of election by the second respondent/Election