Court asks Govt. to assess BC population

By Our Legal Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 13. A Division Bench of the A.P. High Court comprising Mr. Justice Motilal B. Naik and Mr. Justice A. Gopal Reddy, on Wednesday directed the Government to conduct elections to the posts of Sarpanch and ward member of Gram panchayats in the State after ascertaining the percentage of voters belonging to the Backwards Classes (BC).

The Bench was dealing with a batch of writ petitions filed by the A.P. Sarpanches Association and others. The petitioners challenged the validity of Article 243-D of the Constitution of India, which gives discretion to the State Legislatures to fix percentage of reservations for BCs in the Panchayat Raj institutions.

The petitioners complained that the figures relating to the percentage of BCs in the voters' lists were faulty. The petitioners brought to the notice of the court the fact that the State Government was pulled up by the Benches of the High Court on earlier occasions for relying upon the figures arrived at the A.P.B.C. Cooperative Finance Corporation. The method of lottery to identify the reserved seats was also challenged. At the time of admission of these writ petitions, the Bench had restrained the State Election Commission from issuing an election notification.

The Bench, speaking through Mr. Justice Motilal B.Naik in a 50- page judgment, felt that the Government should make a fresh effort to identify the BCs in the voters' lists. The Bench brushed aside the challenge of the petitioners to the provisions of the Constitution and the sections of the Panchayat Raj Act. The Bench dealt at length the issue of lottery system to identify the reserved seats. Mr. Justice Naik commented: ``It shall always be remembered that reservations are made to fulfil the aspirations of such sections of people where they can live in dignity in a conducive political environment where they could rule themselves. By making reservations either in favour of BC or, for that matter, any other category through drawal of lots, the object of reservations would be defeated.'' He declared that ``the constitutional scheme can not be made to appear a mere ritual.''

The Bench took note of the fact that in some cases posts were reserved for BCs where there was not a single person from that community. The court said: ``We hold, providing reservations by drawal of lots is not acceptable to a system by rule of law.''

Dealing with the sensitive issue of percentage of BC voters and population, the Bench lamented that had the Government taken note of the earlier judgments in this regard and acted effectively, this issue would not have surfaced again. The Bench referred to a full bench judgment of this High Court in 1987 and a judgment of the five-judge Bench in 1995 wherein the action of the State Government in relying upon the figures arrived by APBC Co-op Finance Corporation was not appreciated. The Bench felt that enumeration of BC population will consume at least four to five years and felt that elections can not be postponed indefinitely. The Bench took note of the fact that the State Government informed the court that identification of BCs in the present voters' lists will take three-and-a-half months. The court directed the State Government to immediately take steps to identify the BC voters from the existing voters' list of each gram panchayat without regard to census.

The authorities were directed to identify the constituencies for reservation as per descending order as stated in the rules. The last date to intimate the State Election Commission about the reserved constituencies etc. was fixed as 31.5.2001. The SEC then should set the election process into motion, the Bench said.

The court clarified that just because a person was shown as BC in the voters' list, it did not mean that the process mentioned in the rules to claim reservation to contest in a reserved ward was dispensed with completely.

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