Reserved Seat Without a Woman Candidate
Ratanpur Gram Panchayat has 12 seats. Under the roster notified for the term, two seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes, one for Scheduled Tribes and the rest are general; six seats in all are reserved for women, including one of the SC seats, and the office of Sarpanch is reserved for a woman from the general category. For the SC (woman) seat in ward 4, the only nomination filed was by Mahesh, a Scheduled Caste man. The Returning Officer rejected it and declared the seat vacant. Mahesh argues that no SC woman came forward, so an SC man should be treated as satisfying the reservation, or alternatively the seat should be thrown open as a general seat. Separately, Sunita, an SC woman, claims she reached the Returning Officer's table at 5:20 p.m. on the last date, after the 5:00 p.m. deadline, and that her nomination was refused. Results are declared; two seats, one SC and one general, remain vacant because no nominations were received; the newly elected members want to hold the first meeting and elect the Sarpanch.
1. Was the rejection of Mahesh's nomination correct? Address both of his arguments.
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The rejection was correct.
Reservation attaches to the seat, not to the candidate. The Constitution requires seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to population, and not less than one-third of the total seats - half in Gujarat by state law - to be reserved for women, including within the SC and ST reserved seats. Once a seat is notified as reserved for an SC woman, only an SC woman is eligible to contest it. Eligibility is a condition of candidature and is tested when the nomination is scrutinised.
First argument - non-availability: there is no provision for de-reservation of a panchayat seat merely because no eligible candidate came forward. The remedy the law provides for a seat that draws no nomination is a fresh election for the same seat, not a change in its character. Accepting Mahesh's argument would let a Returning Officer rewrite the roster.
Second argument - throw it open: that would defeat both the caste-based and the gender-based reservation, and the allotment of seats is protected from court interference. The seat must be re-notified as an SC (woman) seat and filled by fresh election.
2. What is Sunita's remedy, and what should the Gram Panchayat office record and refrain from doing?
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Sunita's remedy: her grievance is that a nomination was wrongly refused. Disputes about the validity of an election, including improper rejection of a nomination, are tried by election petition before the authority prescribed under the Gujarat Panchayats Act, not by the panchayat and not by the Talati. She should be told, in writing, the date on which the election result was declared and the period within which a petition must be filed, and be advised to keep proof of the time she reached the office.
What the office should record: a factual note in the inward/office diary of her arrival and of what she submitted; the nomination register with the stated closing time; the Returning Officer's written order of rejection. Facts only - no opinion on whether she was right.
What it must refrain from doing: altering the nomination register, back-dating an entry, or admitting a nomination after the result is declared. Those would convert a procedural dispute into a criminal one. If the seat is declared vacant, the correct step is to report it to the election authority for a fresh notification, not to adjust it in her favour.
3. Can the panchayat hold its first meeting and elect the Sarpanch when two of the twelve seats are vacant? Reason from constitutional principle.
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Yes. A casual vacancy does not suspend the constitution of a panchayat. The panchayat is a body corporate with a fixed term; vacancies arising because no nomination was received or because a member resigns or dies are contemplated by the Act, which provides for them to be filled by bye-election within the prescribed period. Reading two vacancies as a dissolution would let a handful of absent nominations paralyse a democratically elected body - the opposite of what the constitutional amendments intend.
For the first meeting the following must be observed:
- The meeting must be convened by the officer prescribed for the purpose, who presides over the election of the Sarpanch; the members cannot convene it themselves.
- Proper written notice to every elected member, with the agenda confined to the oath, election of the Sarpanch and, where applicable, the Upa-Sarpanch.
- Quorum as prescribed; the two vacancies are counted against the sanctioned strength of 12, not treated as absent members.
- The result must be recorded and reported at once to the Taluka Development Officer, and the vacancies reported separately for bye-election.