Indore: Indore municipal wards reservation quashed

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday quashed a gazette notification wherein the list of reserved wards has been published finalizing the reservation of municipal wards in Indore municipal area but without following the due process of “rotation of wards”.

Justice Subodh Abhyankar asked the state government to formulate such policy of reservation for rotation of seats as provided under Article 243-T of the Constitution of India and issue a fresh publication for conduct of elections.

The state government had on November 6, 2020 had issued gazette notification dated in pursuance to the Rule 7 of the Madhya Pradesh Municipalities (Reservation of Wards for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Women) Rules, 1994.

The notification had mention about the list of reserved wards with finalization the reservation of municipal wards of Indore municipal area, but rotation of wards was not done as per Rule 4 of Rules of 1994.

This was challenged by Jayesh Gurnani and Dilip Kaushal in High Court.

The government defended the notification saying that there is no denying the fact that Article 243-T of the Constitution of India clearly reflects that there has to be a reservation of seats in the municipal election for SC/ST category but rotation is suggestive and not mandatory.

“It is not the constitutional mandate that the reservation of seats for SC & ST in the municipal election must be always be done only by way of rotation as the use of word ‘may’ preserves the discretionary domain with the State Government,” the government’s lawyer said.

Both the sides citied different rulings by High Court and Supreme Court to defend them.

After hearing both the parties, the Indore bench citing ruling by Supreme Court in “K Krishna Murthy (Dr) and others vs Union of India and another” case quashed the gazette notification.