E-Paper
Quota for municipality prez, V-P illegal: HC
The Allahabad High Court has held Article 243 T of the Constitution of India to be valid which provides the scheme for reservation of post of chairperson in the municipalities to women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward castes. However, the Court has declared as ultra vires the sub-section 5 of Section 9A of the UP Municipalities Act which provided that the office of the president and vice-president of the municipalities shall be reserved for SC, ST, backward classes .
The Allahabad High Court has held Article 243 T of the Constitution of India to be valid which provides the scheme for reservation of post of chairperson in the municipalities to women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward castes.
However, the Court has declared as ultra vires the sub-section 5 of Section 9A of the UP Municipalities Act which provided that the office of the president and vice-president of the municipalities shall be reserved for SC, ST, backward classes and women in such manner as being prescribed by rules. The court said that since Article 243T of the Constitution had called upon the state legislature to make the law, therefore, the laws with regard to reservation had to be framed by the state legislature and if the executive was sub-delegated the power then sufficient guidelines had to be provided.
Besides, the court also declared as illegal Rule 6 and 6A of the UP Municipalities (Reservation and allotment of seats and offices) Rules 1994 in so far as it provided for reservation on the post of presidents and vice-presidents of municipalities.
Giving this verdict, a division bench comprising Justice RK Agrawal and Justice Saroj Bala observed, “It is well settled that legislature cannot delegate its essential legislative functions to the rule-making authority or to the executive.
It has to lay broad guidelines. Sub-delegation can be sustained if permitted by an express provision or by necessary implication from the statute’’.
Elaborating the legal aspect, the court further observed, “According to constitutional mandate, it is for the legislature of the state of Uttar Pradesh to make provisions for the reservation for the office of presidents in municipalities for SC, ST, backward classes and women’’.
The writ petition was filed by Heera Lal Umar and several others, whereby the Article 243T (4) and (6) of the Constitution of India were sought to be declared unconstitutional and Section 9 (A) (5) of the UP Municipalities Act was sought to be declared as ultra vires.
Appearing on behalf of the petitioners, senior advocate Ravi Kiran Jain and VKS Chaudhari had contended that Article 243T which provided for reservation of seats for the chairperson of various categories was violative of the basic structure of the Constitution, mainly on the premise that reservation of single post was undemocratic and was against the principle of maximum 50 per cent reservation.
Arguing on behalf of the state, Additional Advocate General SMA Kazmi pointed out that Article 243 T (4) did not infringe in any manner upon the basic feature of the Constitution of India, and therefore, could not be held to be ultra vires.
