The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Court dismisses plea against quota in Chickaballapur

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 24, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Court dismisses plea against quota in Chickaballapur

Staff Reporter

Four residents seek change in reservation of wards in Chickaballapur Municipality
Delimitation of wards undertaken on the basis of the 2001 census report

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday refused to quash a notification by the State Government reserving wards in Chickaballapur Municipality and dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition by four residents seeking a direction to redo the reservation of wards as per the population of backward classes.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Rammohan Reddy passed the order on a petition by Shahanaz Begum, Saleema Begum, Mohammad Iqbal and Ameer Mohammad Sadiq, all residents of Chickaballapur.

The petitioners had challenged as illegal and arbitrary a July 30, 2007 notification by the State relating to reservation of ward No 3 and Ward No 17 in Chickaballapur. They said the reservation was not made as per rotation as stipulated under Article 243-T of the Constitution.

Defended

Advocate-General Uday Holla, appearing for the State, defended the reservation of posts and said it had been done by the Government as per the law. He said the elections to the urban local bodies would be held as per the 2001 census figures.

He said the delimitation of wards too had been undertaken on the basis of the 2001 census report. Thus the reservation of seats for 2007 elections would be determined on rotation basis by adopting the 2001 census.

He admitted to the court that the Government would face practical difficulties in case it incorporated reservation of seats for backward classes as there was no acceptable statistics on population of backward classes.

Accordance

The Bench said the guidelines/general principles contained in the Government Order delineating ward reservation was in accordance with the provisions of Article 243 T of the Constitution and Section 11 and 13 of the Karnataka Municipality Act, 1964.

It said that even if the above mentioned statutory and constitutional provisions were observed, it was practically impossible to maintain mathematical precision in the matter of reservation of seats.

The Bench said it was satisfied that the maximum efforts were made to bear in mind and follow the spirit of constitutional and statutory provisions. On reservation of seats to BCs, the Bench accepted the Government’s contention and said it did consider it just or proper to quash the notification on this ground.

Elections

It said any further examination or scrutiny of the validity of general principles or guidelines contained in the Government order was not desirable as this stage as elections to urban local bodies were slated to be held before September and that there has already been considerable delay in holding the elections.

The Bench dismissed the petition.

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