1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU R DATED THIS THE20H DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 2021 BEFORE THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M. NAGAPRASANNA WRIT PETITION No.1506/2021 (LB- RES) BETWEEN1 SRI RAVI S/O GURUVA, AGED ABOUT47YEARS, R/AT DOOR NO.2/246B, PATTORI ARASARA MOOLE, ASAIGOLI POST, KONAJE VILLAGE, MANGALURU TALUK, MANGALURU – 574 199.
2. SRI RAMAKRISHNA K. PATTORI S/O SHEKARA POOJARY, AGED ABOUT48YEARS, R/AT NO.4-146, PATTORI HOUSE, ASSAIGOLI POST, NEAR NAGABRAHMA TEMPLE, KONAJE – 574 199 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT. ... PETITIONERS (BY SRI ANANDARAMA K., ADVOCATE (PHYSICAL HEARING)) 2 AND1 STATE OF KARNATAKA DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND PANCHAYATH RAJ, VIDHANA SOUDHA, BENGALURU – 560 001 REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY.
2. THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, MANGALURU – 570 082.
3. KARNATAKA STATE ELECTION COMMISSION NO.8, 1ST FLOOR, K.S.C.M.F. BUILDING ANNEXE, CUNNINGHAM ROAD, BENGALURU – 560 052 REPRESENTED BY ITS COMMISSIONER.
4. KONAJE GRAMA PANCHAYATH KONAJE, MANGALURU TALUK – 574 199 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
5. BALA GRAMA PANCHAYATH BALA, MANGALURU TALUK – 575 030 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
6. YEDAPADAVU GRAMA PANCHAYATH YEDAPADAVU, MANGALURU TALUK – 571 144 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER. 3
7. BADAGA YEDAPADAVU GRAMA PANCHAYATH BADAGA YEDAPADAVU, MANGALURU TALUK – 574 267 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER8 KUPPEPADAVU GRAMA PANCHAYATH KUPPEPADAVU, MANGALURU TALUK-574144 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
9. EKKARU GRAMA PANCHAYATH EKKARU, MANGALURU TALUK – 574 509 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
10. ATHIKARIBETTU GRAMA PANCHAYATH ATHIKARIBETTU , MANGALURU TALUK-574154 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
11. THALAPADY GRAMA PANCHAYATH THALAPADY, MANGALURU TALUK – 575 022 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
12. MALLURU GRAMA PANCHAYATH MALLURU, MANGALURU TALUK – 575 029 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
13. KINYA GRAMA PANCHAYATH KINYA, MANGALURU TALUK – 575 023 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, 4 REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
14. MANJANADI GRAMA PANCHAYATH MANJANADI, MANGALURU TALUK – 574 237 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
15. JOKATTE GRAMA PANCHAYATH JOKATTE, MANGALURU TALUK – 575 011 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER.
16. PADUPERARU GRAMA PANCHAYATH PADUPERARU, MANGALURU TALUK – 570 082 DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, REPRESENTED BY ITS PANCHAYATH DEVELOPMENT OFFICER. ... RESPONDENTS (BY SMT.PRATHIMA HONNAPURA, AGA FOR R1 AND R2 (PHYSICAL HEARING); SRI K.N.PHANINDRA, SR.COUNSEL FOR SMT.VAISHALI HEGDE, ADVOCATE FOR R3; SRI K.CHANDRANATH ARIGA, ADVOCATE FOR R9, R12 AND R15; SRI A.K.VASANTH, ADVOCATE FOR R16; R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R10, R11, R13, R14 ARE SERVED) THIS WRIT PETITION IS FILED UNDER ARTICLES226AND227OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA PRAYING TO CALL FOR RECORDS; QUASH ENDORSEMENT DTD1901.2021 VIDE ANNX-K ISSUED TO PETITIONER NO.1 BY THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, MANGALURU, DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, R-2 HEREIN AND ETC., 5 THIS WRIT PETITION HAVING BEEN HEARD AND RESERVED FOR ORDER
S ON1309.2021, COMING ON FOR PRONOUNCEMENT THIS DAY, THE COURT MADE THE FOLLOWING :- ORDER
The Petitioners who are the elected members of Konaje Grama Panchayat/respondent No.4 have presented the subject writ petition seeking the following prayers: “(a) Call for records; (b) Issue a writ of certiorari or any other writ or order quashing Endorsement No.ELN(2) DKDC2101112)/5/G2 dated 19-01-2021 (Annexure-K) issued to petitioner No.1 by the Deputy Commissioner, Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada District, Respondent No.2 herein in the interest of justice; (c) Issue a writ of certiorari or any other writ or order quashing Endorsement No.ELN (2) DKDC2101112)/5/G2 dated 18-01-2021 (Annexure-L) issued to petitioner No.2. by the Deputy Commissioner, Mangaluru, Dakshina 6 Kannada District, Respondent No.2 herein, in the interest of justice; (d) Issue a writ of certiorari or any other writ or order quashing Letter No.SEC01EGP2021dated 08-01-2021 (Annexure-E) issued by respondent No.3; (e) Issue a writ of certiorari or any other writ or order quashing the “2020 Term President & Vice-President Reservation Sheet, Taluk; Mangaluru” dated 18-01-2021 (Annexure-G) insofar as it pertains to the reservation of office of President (Adhyaksha) in respondent No.4 to respondent No.16 Grama Panchayats, in the interest of justice; (f) Issue a writ or mandamus or any other writ, order or direction, directing the respondents 1 to 3 to reserve the office of the Adhyaksha in respondent No.4 Grama Panchayat in favour of Scheduled Caste (General), in the interest of justice; (g) Grant costs of the proceedings; 7 (h) Grant such other and further relief(s) as this Hon’ble Court deems fit in the facts and circumstances of the case.
2. Brief facts leading to the filing of the present petition, as borne out from the pleadings, are as follows:- The petitioners are elected members of Konaje Grama Panchayat/respondent No.4. The 1st petitioner claims to be belonging to Scheduled Caste category and is elected as member to Konaje Grama Panchayat from Ward No.10. Petitioner No.2 is also so elected to Konaje Grama Panchayat from Ward No.11 in the elections held to the Gram Panchayat in the year 2020. Results in the said elections were declared on 30.12.2020, after which, the 3rd respondent/Karnataka State Election Commission (‘the Commission’ for short) passed an order on 01.01.2021 prescribing certain guidelines in the matter of reservation of office of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha of the Gram Panchayat in favour of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Class ‘A’, Backward Class ‘B’ and for women. These guidelines were issued in exercise of power conferred on the Commission under 8 Section 44(2) of the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 (‘the Act’ for short).
3. In furtherance of the order dated 01.01.2021 the Commission issued a letter directing the Deputy Commissioner to use software by name ‘GPPVP Application’ for the purpose of identifying Gram Panchayats to determine panchayats for reservation in respect of the office of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha. The 2nd respondent/ Deputy Commissioner issued a notice dated 15.01.2021, informing that the process of identifying and reserving office of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha of the Gram Panchayats in Mangalore Taluk for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and women will be conducted on 18.01.2021.
4. In terms of the notice, proceedings were held on 18.01.2021, reserving the offices of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha of the Gram Panchayats in Mangalore Taluk. In the said proceedings, the office of Adhyaksha of Konaje Grama Panchayat is reserved for Scheduled Caste (Woman). It is this 9 reservation in favour of Scheduled Caste (Woman) for the office of Adhyaksha in Konaje Grama Panchayat that has led the petitioners to this Court in this writ petition.
5. Heard Anandarama.K., learned counsel appearing for petitioners, Smt.Prathima Honnapura, learned Additional Government Advocate appearing for respondent Nos.1 and 2, Smt.Vaishali Hegde, learned counsel appearing for respondent No.3, Sri.K.Chandranath Ariga, learned counsel appearing for respondent Nos.9, 12 and 15 and Sri.A.K.Vasanth, learned counsel appearing for respondent No.16.
6. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioners Sri Anandarama.K would submit that the office of Adhyaksha of Konaje Grama Panchayat ought to have gone to Scheduled Caste Man and not to Woman, in the light of the fact that there was already a Scheduled Caste member out of 12 elected members in the Gram Panchayat. Since there was already a member, again reserving the office of Adhyaksha for Scheduled Caste (Woman) is contrary to Clause 3(vi) of the Government order dated 10 01.01.2021. The learned counsel would submit that the data has been wrongly entered into the software deliberately which has resulted in an erroneous output.
7. On the other hand, the learned Additional Government Advocate Smt. Prathima Honnapura, while taking to the statement of objections would submit that guidelines are formulated by the Commission in exercise of powers conferred under the Constitution and Section 44 of the Act and this having been followed for the purpose of election to the Konaje Grama Panchayat, there is no violation of the guidelines dated 01.01.2021 and the chart to the said guidelines.
8. The learned Senior Counsel Sri K.N.Phanindra appearing for the 3rd respondent/Commission would submit that the software is formulated and adopted to ward off any kind of arbitrariness in reservation of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha in the Gram Panchayat as the use of software is prescribed by the Commission in terms of its communication dated 18.01.2021, 11 which is formulated for the purpose of allotment of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha. In terms of guidelines, 50% of seats of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha are reserved for women. Konaje Grama Panchayat has two Scheduled Caste members. Therefore 50% of the seats are reserved for women. Incidentally, Women have emerged victorious in all the reserved seats of the Gram Panchayats in Mangaluru Taluk. That cannot be a ground for the petitioners to contend that offices of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha of Konaje Grama Panchayat cannot be reserved in favour of women as it is women who have been elected and would submit that the writ petition be dismissed.
9. I have given my anxious consideration to the submissions made and perused the materials on record.
10. Facts afore-narrated not being dispute are not reiterated. The elections to Gram Panchayats in Mangalore Taluk have resulted in the election of women as members of all Gram Panchayats in those reserved seats for Scheduled Caste / 12 Scheduled Tribe. This petition is concerned with Konaje Grama Panchayat as this Court while entertaining the writ petition passed an order that elections to Adhyaksha of Konaje Grama Panchayat will be subject to the result of the writ petition. Challenge to any other Gram Panchayat was not entertained by this Court when this Court directed elections to Konaje Grama Panchayat to be subject to result of the writ petition. Therefore, the learned counsel for the petitioners though pleads about Kinya Gram Panchayat, he restricts his submissions with regard to the election to the office of Adhyaksha of Konaje Grama Panchayat.
11. Elections were notified to be held on 30.12.2020, to the Gram Panchayats in Mangalore Taluk. This resulted in a Scheduled Caste woman being elected as Adhyaksha to Konaje Grama Panchayat. Elected members of the Gram Panchayat, the petitioners herein/men have called in question the election to the office of Adhyaksha in the said Gram Panchayat on the ground that it has to be reserved for Scheduled Caste man and 13 not a woman, as there is already a woman member in the said Gram Panchayat.
12. After the elections were held for the Gram Panchayat, guidelines were issued by the Commission on 01.01.2021, and to the method of reservation applicable for filling up offices of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha. These guidelines are formulated by the Commission in exercise of its powers under Article 243K of the Constitution read with Section 44(2) of the Act. Article 243K of the Constitution reads as follows:- “243K. Elections to the Panchayats.- The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to the Panchayats shall be vested in a State Election Commission consisting of a State Election Commissioner to be appointed by the Governor. (2) Subject to the provisions of any law made by the Legislature of a State the conditions of service and tenure of office of the State Election 14 Commissioner shall be such as the Governor may by rule determine: Provided that the State Election Commissioner shall not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like ground as a Judge of a High Court and the conditions of service of the State Election Commissioner shall not be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment. (3) The Governor of a State shall, when so requested by the State Election Commission, make available to the State Election Commission such staff as may be necessary for the discharge of the functions conferred on the State Election Commission by clause (1). (4) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Legislature of a State may, by law, make provision with respect to all matters relating to, or in connection with, elections to the Panchayats.” Section 44 of the Act reads as follows:- “44. Election of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha.- (1) Every Grama Panchayat 15 shall, within one month from the date of publication of names of elected members under sub-section (8) of section 5 or immediately before the expiry of term of office of Adhyaksha and Upadhyksha choose two members of the Grama Panchayat to be respectively Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha. In the event of occurrence of any vacancy by reason of death, resignation, removal or otherwise in the office of Adhyaksha or Upadhyaksha, the Grama Panchayat shall choose another member to be the Adhyaksha or the Upadhyaksha, as the case may be. (2) Subject to the general or special order of the State Election Commission, the Deputy Commissioner shall reserve,- (a) such number of offices of Adhyakshas and Upadhyakshas of Grama Panchayats in the State for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the number of such offices bearing as nearly as may be the same proportion to the total number of the offices in the State as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the State or of the Scheduled Tribes in the State bears to the total population of the State:
16. Provided that, if no person belonging to the scheduled caste is available, the seats reserved for that category, shall also be filled by the persons belonging to the scheduled tribes and vice-versa. (b) such number of offices of Adhyakshas and Upadhyakshas of the Grama Panchayats, which shall as nearly as may be, one-third of the total number of offices of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha in the State for the persons belonging to the Backward Classes: But the number of offices of Adhyakshas and Upadhyakshas reserved for the Backward Classes under this clause shall be so determined, that the total number of offices of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes under clause (a) and the Backward Classes under this clause shall not exceed fifty per cent of the total number of offices of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha of the Grama Panchayaths in the State. Provided that out of the offices reserved under this clause eighty per cent of the total 17 number of such offices shall be reserved for the persons falling under category ‘A’ and the remaining twenty per cent of the offices shall be reserved for the persons falling under category ‘B’: Provided further that if no person falling under category ‘A’ is available, the offices reserved for that category shall also be filled by the persons falling under category ‘B’ and Vice versa. (c) not less than fifty percent of the total number of offices of Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha of Grama Panchayats in the State from each of the categories which are reserved for persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribe and Backward Classes and of those which are non-reserved, for women subject to an overall limit of one half of the total number rounding of to the next number Provided that the offices reserved under this sub-section shall be allotted by rotation to different Grama Panchayats. 18 Explanation.- For the removal of doubts it is hereby declared that the principle of rotation for purpose of reservation of offices under this section shall commence from the first election to be held after the commencement of the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993.” It is in furtherance of the mandate of Article 243K and the statute, the guidelines are formulated. 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13. The Deputy Commissioner on 18.01.2021, issued an endorsement rejecting the claim of the petitioners that the office of Adhyaksha in Konaje Grama Panchayat should belong to Scheduled Caste men as Konaje Grama Panchayat has two Scheduled Caste women as members of the Gram Panchayat. The explanation in terms of the said endorsement is that out of 13 Gram Panchayats having Scheduled Caste members, it is only Konaje Grama Panchayat which has two Scheduled Caste members. In terms of the endorsement dated 15.01.2021, 21 Konaje Grama Panchayat was automatically allotted the first Scheduled Caste reservation to the office of Adhyaksha since the remaining 12 Gram Panchayats had only one Scheduled Caste member in terms of the software or the lottery as it is called. The other Gram Panchayat i.e., Kinya was allotted second Scheduled Caste reservation for the office of Adhyaksha.
14. The plausible justification given by the State and the Election Commission is acceptable as the allotment of Scheduled Caste (woman) reservation to Konaje Grama Panchayat comes about in the light of the fact that on earlier occasion when elections took place in the year 2015, Adhyaksha of Konaje Grama Panchayat had been allotted to general category and insofar as Kinya Gram Panchayat is concerned, it was reserved for general (woman). Therefore, following the guidelines that there should be a rotation which should not result in repetition of reservation to women, the office of Adhyaksha in the year 2021, is allotted to Scheduled Caste (woman) in Konaje Grama Panchayat. The allotment of reservation to the office of 22 Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha is undertaken by taking Taluk as a unit. The reservations are allotted by the Deputy Commissioner on Taluk basis within the District in terms of parameters set out in Section 44 of the Act (supra) and based upon the guidelines of the Commission dated 01.01.2021.
15. The guidelines stipulated for reservation on rotation basis would clearly indicate that the repetition of reservation should be avoided as far as possible. The usage of software for picking up seats to be reserved for particular category cannot be held to be arbitrary as contended by the petitioners unless it is demonstrable that it has resulted in illegality or arbitrariness, demonstration of which, I do not find in the case at hand. It is a uniform process that is evolved by the Commission and is directed to be implemented. Though keying in the data is done by the computer operator, the same would not enure to the benefit of the petitioners to contend that the process is erroneous, unless it is demonstrated that reservation of the office of Adhyaksha in favour of Scheduled Caste woman is 23 arbitrary and contrary to law, that would entail interference at the hands of this Court.
16. The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners is, one Scheduled Caste woman being already a member; the post of Adhyaksha should not go to a Scheduled Caste woman but to the first petitioner who is a Scheduled Caste man. Therefore, the issue now emerges is a preference to be between a man or a woman to the post of Adhyaksha of the Konaje Gram Panchayat. The post of Adhyaksha being reserved to a scheduled caste women is in terms of the guidelines and the policy of reservation. I do not find any error in the reservation made in favour of Scheduled Caste woman for Konaje Grama Panchayat, as the statistics would clearly indicate that there are two Scheduled Caste members in Konaje Grama Panchayat out of which, one was reserved for Scheduled Caste woman which cannot mean to be a repetition of reservation, as on an earlier occasion when elections were held in 2015, for Konaje Grama Panchayat, the office of Adhyaksha was allotted to a general 24 candidate. Therefore, none of the grounds urged by the petitioners would sound acceptance.
17. Insofar as the reliance placed on the judgment of this Court in the case of BAYAMMA v. STATE ELECTION COMMISSIONER AND OTHERS reported in ILR2011KAR1733is concerned, the same is distinguishable on the facts obtaining in that case without much ado. The case before this Court in the said decision was that Government had initially notified reservation in favour of Scheduled Tribe women but within two days thereafter, Government issued another notification modifying the same by reserving the office to Scheduled Caste. This, the Court found to be erroneous and unjustifiable. The facts obtaining in the case at hand are not identical to the issue decided in the aforesaid judgment. In the case at hand there were clear guidelines issued by the Commission on 01.01.2021, and the Deputy Commissioner has followed those guidelines by issuing certain circulars. The clear principles and the policy adopted for reservation has resulted in 25 the women becoming members in all the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. Mere fact that women have emerged victorious in the reserved seats for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes as the case would be can by no stretch of imagination be construed to be arbitrary as is contended by the petitioner. I do not see any infirmity in what has emerged in the case at hand.
18. The situation projected by the petitioner in the first blush would seem that seats reserved for members of all the Gram Panchayat being given to women. But such fact has become inevitable as women have in fact emerged victorious in all the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and to the post of Adhyaksha of Konaje Gram Panchayat is given to a woman as there are two members elected who belong to Scheduled Caste in Konaje Gram Panchayat - one a man and the other a woman. Therefore, members in all the reserved seats being women and Adhyaksha of Konaje Gram Panchayat being a woman, cannot be held to be arbitrary. 26
19. It is in fact a vindication of empowerment of woman in gross root politics. In my considered view, the case at hand is a clear step towards the fruition of the dreams of the father of the nation with regard to village level governance and participation of women in such governance. 73rd Amendment to the Constitution was a step towards self-governance at gross root level but equal right insofar as participation of women at gross root level had not come about. This is a classic case where empowerment of the hitherto under-powered has emerged in all vigor at grass root level. The challenge is made one of the petitioner who is a Scheduled Caste man. If it were to be contrary to law, it would have been a different circumstance altogether, while it is not. It is high time that men make way or give such opportunity to women, the woman - Adhyaksha in Konaje Gram Panchayat.
20. For the aforesaid reasons, I do not find any merit in the writ petition. The writ petition fails and is accordingly dismissed. 27 In view of the dismissal of the writ petition, I.A.No.1/2021 filed for impleadment does not survive for consideration and same stands disposed. Sd/- JUDGE bkp CT:MJ