High Court of Punjab and HaryanaCWP/256/2023dismissed

Jai Naraiyan And Another v. State Of Punjab And Others

2024-12-19Mr. Justice Sureshwar Thakur,Mrs. Justice Sudeepti Sharma20 pages

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Civil Writ Petition Under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a writ, order or direction especially in the nature of Certiorari for quashing of notification dated 23.12.2022 (Annexure P' 1) vide which the respondent Department of Local Government Punjab has made publication of limits of ward boundaries of 13 wards of Nagar Panchayat Khanauri, District Sangrur and reservation made for SC/SC Women/Women and BC category in those wards and has reserved ward no.8 for Backward Class Category, which is in violation of the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in

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, as per which the State/Union Territory concerned is to fulfill the triple test conditions laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India for providing reservation to Backward Class/OBC Category in local body elections, which State of Punjab has not complied with and further considering the fact that the ward no.8 has been reserved for Backward Class category in 1994 and 2005 previously and any further reservation in that ward for BC category would be in violation of Section 8 of The Punjab Municipality Act 1911, which provides that such reservation is to be made on rotation basis to different constituencies (wards), in the interest of justice. AND Further for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to declare open the seat of ward no.8 Nagar Panchayat Khanauri for general category keeping in view the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in

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and the fact that the ward no.8 has been reserved for Backward Class category in 1994 and 2005 previously and any further reservation in that ward for BC category would be in violation of Section 8 of The Punjab Municipality Act 1911. AND Further prayed that the respondents may kindly be restrained from finalizing draft notification dated 23.12.2022 and issuing the notification for commencing process for conducting elections of Nagar Panchayat Khanauri, District Sangrur during the pendency of

) present writ petition before this Hon'ble Court, in the interest of justice.

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82. In view of the above, our conclusions are:' (i) The nature and purpose of reservations in the context of local self'government is considerably different from that of higher education and public employment. In this sense, Articles 243'D and Article 243'T form a distinct and independent constitutional basis for affirmative action and the principles that have been evolved in relation to the reservation policies enabled by Articles 15(4) and 16(4) cannot be readily applied in the context of local self'government. Even when made, they need not be for a period corresponding to the period of reservation for purposes of Articles 15(4) and 16(4), but can be much shorter.

(ii) Article 243'D(6) and Article 243'T(6) are constitutionally valid since they are in the nature of provisions which merely enable State Legislatures to reserve seats and chairperson posts in favour of backward classes. Concerns about disproportionate reservations should be raised by way of specific challenges against the State Legislations.

(iii) We are not in a position to examine the claims about overbreadth in the quantum of reservations provided for OBCs under the impugned State Legislations since there is no contemporaneous empirical data. The onus is on the executive to conduct a rigorous investigation into the patterns of backwardness that act as barriers to political participation which are indeed quite different from the patterns of disadvantages in the matter of access to education and employment. . # (

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13. Be that as it may, it is indisputable that the triple test/conditions required to be complied with by the State before reserving seats in the local bodies for OBCs has not been done so far. To wit, (1) to set up a dedicated Commission to conduct

contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within the State; (2) to specify the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned local body wise in light of recommendations of the Commission, so as not to fall foul of overbreadth; and (3) in any case such reservation shall not exceed aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together. In a given local body, the space for providing such reservation in favour of OBCs may be available at the time of issuing election programme (notifications). However, that could be notified only upon fulfilling the aforementioned pre−conditions. Admittedly, the first step of establishing dedicated Commission to undertake rigorous empirical inquiry itself remains a mirage. To put it differently, it will not be open to respondents to justify the reservation for OBCs without fulfilling the triple test, referred to above. % &

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13. For, until the triple test formality is completed "in all respects" by the State Government, no reservation for Other Backward Classes can be provisioned; and if that exercise cannot be completed before the issue of election programme by the State Election Commission, the seats (except reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes which is a constitutional requirement), the rest of the seats must be notified as for the General Category.

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(1) Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every Municipality and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Municipality as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the Municipal area or of the Scheduled Tribes in the Municipal area bears to the total population of that area and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality.

(2) Not less than one'third of the total number of seats reserved under clause (1) shall be reserved for women

/ belonging to the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes.

(3) Not less than one'third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Municipality shall be reserved for women and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality.

(4) The offices of Chairpersons in the Municipalities shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women in such manner as the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide.

(5) The reservation of seats under clauses (1) and (2) and the reservation of offices of Chairpersons (other than the reservation for women) under clause (4) shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the period specified in article 334. (6) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the Legislature of a State from making any provision for reservation of seats in any Municipality or offices of Chairpersons in the Municipalities in favour of backward class of citizens.

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6. The High Court, by its impugned judgment dated 27 December 2022, has directed (in operative direction (C)) that:

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The above direction of the High Court, which mandates the holding of elections to local bodies in Uttar Pradesh without reserving seats for Backward Classes of citizens will result in a violation of the constitutional and statutory requirements of reservation for the OBCs. Democratization of municipalities under Article 243T and the duty to provide representation are not at competing values. Prima facie, the high court is not correct in prioritising one over the other and directing the holding of elections without the provision of representation for the Backward Classes. Democratising the

municipalities and true representation in the composition of the municipalities under Article 243T are both constitutional mandates. When a constitutional court is called upon to review the decisions of the State in this context, it must ensure that both these values are given full effect so that truly representative and vibrant local bodies contemplated under Part IXA of the Constitution are realised.

8 Hence, the direction needs to be stayed. Pending further orders of this Court, the operation of the above direction namely Direction (C) shall remain stayed.

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2. In our considered view, the Division Bench of the High Court has correctly understood the mandate contained in Articles 243E and 243U of the Constitution of India along with the interpretation of these provisions as explained by this Court in (i) Kishan Singh Tomar vs. Municipal Corporation of CPF, Ahmedabad, (2006) 8 SCC 352; and (ii) Suresh Mahajan vs. State of Madhya Pradesh & Anr., (2022) 12 SCC 770. 3 ,, , #

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3. It goes without saying that the Constitutional Scheme mandates that the election process must commence six months before the expiry of the term of five years contemplated under Articles 243E(1) and 243U(1) of the Constitution of India. The High Court, in Paragraph 1.3, has taken note of the fact that out of 47 Municipal Corporations and Municipalities, the terms of some of such bodies expired way back in the year 2020, and in any case, the term of all other bodies had expired by March, 2023, except three Municipalities which are newly constituted. ! 796 34> 1 67 ="6454#964 94> 3? 67 :6464 /696 5 54> 67 8#64 67

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