The main legal point established in the judgment is that reservation for the President's office in the Municipal Council is not limited to candidates elected from reserved constituencies, and a popular candidate from a reserved category should not be barred from contesting the election for the President's office reserved for the general category.

Vinod K. Sharma, J. - Present writ petition has been filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India seeking a writ of certioari for quashing the order/proceedings dated 29.8.2006 whereby respondent No.4 belonging to the Backward Class was declared to have been elected from general category as President of Municipal Council, Hisar.

2. The facts in brief are that general election of the Municipal Council Hisar was held on 16.4.2005 for 31 Wards in which 15 Wards were reserved for general category, 5 Wards were reserved for Schedule Castes and 2 Wards were reserved for Backward class category and 9 Wards for women category. After the election, the Election Commission, Haryana in pursuance to the Section 24 (2) of the Haryana Municipal Act (for short the Act) notified the names of persons who were declared elected as the members of the Municipal Council, Hisar by notification dated 19.4.2005 in which the names of the members with their parentage and the Ward of the category from which they were returned was mentioned. The said notification has been attached as Annexure P.1 with the present writ petition which shows that the petitioner was elected as Municipal Council from Ward No.2 from general category whereas respondent No.4 was elected from Ward No.18 which was reserved for Backward Class category. After the declaration of the election in order to fill up the vacant post, the elections were held for the office of President, Municipal Council, Hisar on 29.8.2006 at 11 A.M. in the office of Municipal Council, Hisar under the chairmanship of City Magistrate-cum-Prescribed Authority, Hisar which was duly authorised in this regard by the Deputy Commissioner, Hisar vide his letter dated 25.8.2006. The election to the post of President was held in terms of Section 18 of the Act, which reads as under:

“Section 18. Election of President and Vice President. (1) Every Municipal Committee or Municipal Council shall, from time to time, elect one of its members to be President for such period as may be prescribed, and the member so elected shall become President of Municipal Committee or Municipal Council:

Provided that the office of the President in Municipal Committee and Municipal Council shall be reserved for Scheduled Casts and women in accordance with the provisions made in Section 10:-

Provided further that if the office of President is vacated during his tenure on account of death, resignation or no confidence motion, a fresh election for the remainder of the period shall be held from the same category.

(2) Every Municipal Committee or Municipal council shall also, from time to time, elect one of its elected members to be Vice-President:-

Provided that if the office of the Vice President is vacated during his tenure on account of death, resignation or no confidence motion, a fresh election for the remainder of the period shall be held.

(3) The term of the office of President shall be for a period of five years or for the residue period of his office as a member, which ever is less.”

3. In the election held on 29.8.2006 32 Municipal Councilors participated in the election. Respondent No.4 obtained 19 votes whereas the petitioner obtained 13 votes and accordingly respondent No.4 i.e. Bihari Lal Rada was declared as elected. The petitioner has challenged the said election primarily on the ground that as per notification Annexure P.2 the post of President for Municipal Council, Hisar was reserved for general category and therefore, election of respondent No.4 who belongs to Backward category could not be sustained. In support of this contention, learned counsel for the petitioner made reference to Section 10 (5) and Rule 70 (4) of the Act and Rules which read as under:

“10 (5) The office of Presidents in the Municipalities shall be filled up from amongst the members belonging to the general category, Scheduled casts, Backward Classes and women by rotation and by lots in the manner prescribed.”

70 (4)-The offices of t