The Allahabad High Court on Monday quashed an order issued by the Uttar Pradesh government reserving seats for the upcoming panchayat polls with 1995 as the base year.
The division bench of Justice Manish Mathur and Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi passed this order while hearing a PIL civil filed by Ajay Kumar.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that provisions for reservations in the elections are to be determined as per the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj (Reservation and Allotment of Seats and Offices) Rules, 1994 with rule 4 providing allotment of seats for reservation on a rotational basis.
It has been further submitted by the petitioner that pursuant to amendment in Article 243D of the Constitution of India, the rules were notified and for the purposes of allotment of seats as per reservation under rule 4 of rules of 1994, the base year was taken as 1995.
It is also stated that subsequent elections in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 were held in accordance with the rules of 1994.
The Counsel has thereafter drawn attention to Government Order dated September 16, 2015 in which it has been indicated that due to substantial demographic changes in the Districts of the State in the Gram Panchayat and Khetra Panchayat territories in view of the census of 2001 and 2011, it is no longer conducive to have 1995 as the base year for purposes of applying reservation as per Rule 4 of Rules of 1994.
As such, the base year in view of the changed demographic situation was required to be taken as 2015.
The Counsel further informed that ignoring the government order dated September 16, 2015, the opposite parties are proceeding to reserve the seats in terms of rule 4 of rules of 1994 by taking 1995 as the base year instead of 2015.
It is further submitted that the government order dated September 16, 2015 is still in existence and the previous elections held in the year 2015 were also in accordance with the government order.
The Counsel also said that even otherwise in view of the changed demographic situation as noticed by the State Government itself in Government Order dated September 16, 2015, it does not stand to reason that the base year for purposes of reserving seats in terms of Rule 4 of Rules of 1994 should be taken as 1995.
It has also been submitted by counsel for petitioner that even otherwise the provisions for reservation as contemplated by the government order would result in more than 60 per cent seats in a district being reserved, which would be violative of various judgments of the Supreme Court and that it would also violate the maximum cap fixed with respect to reservation of backward class of 27 per cent.
Counsel for petitioner has stated that similarly worded provisions in clause 12(2)(c) of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchyat Samitis Act, 1961 was held to be non-est by a recent judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawali vs. State of Maharashtra and others; 2021 SCC OnLine SC 170.
It is submitted that the Supreme Court while following the Constitution Bench judgment in the case of K. Krishna Murthy (Dr.) vs. Union of India; (2010) 7 SCC 202 has held that the quantum of reservation ought to be local bodies specific and be so provisioned to ensure that it does not exceed the quantitative limit of 50 per cent (aggregate) of vertical reservation of seats for SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.
The advocate general too submitted before the HC that the state government had no objection to implementing the reservation and allotment of seats of constituencies in Panchayats elections taking 2015 as the base year.
It is informed by the advocate general that the entire exercise for providing reservation in the panchayat elections has to be done afresh taking 2015 as the base year, as such, it would not be possible that the reservation of constituencies to be finalized by March 17, 2021.
It is stated that they will complete the entire exercise in this regard by March 27, 2021 and hold the elections by May 10, 2021. The indirect election would be completed by May 25, 2021.
Considering the submissions of the advocate general, the order dated February 11, 2021 was quashed and the writ petition was allowed.