Karnataka High Court
M. Venkataramaiah vs State Of Karnataka on 31 October, 1988
Equivalent citations: ILR1989KAR1264, 1989(1)KARLJ107
JUDGMENT K.A. Swami, J.
1. In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution the petitioner has sought for the following reliefs:
"(i) Call for the records relating to Annexures A, C and E, peruse the same and set them aside as arbitrary and illegal and;
(ii) declare and strike down as unconstitutional Sub-section (2) of Section 14 of the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act 1966, which confers unguided' and arbitrary powers on the Deputy Commissioner;
(iii) Issue a consequential direction to the Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore District, Bangalore and Returning Officer in the instant case to re-notify the constituencies for elections to the 3rd respondent Market Committee and proceed with the holding of elections, in accordance with law."
2. As far as relief Nos. 1 and 3 concerned, they do not survive because the election itself is post-poned throughout the State on the ground that the Agriculturists constituencies are not properly framed. If there is any grievance with regard to agriculturists constituencies framed in contravention of Sub-section (2) of Section 14 of the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act 1966 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), there is sufficient time for the petitioner to approach the Deputy Commissioner. However, relief No. 2 is required to be considered.
3. The petitioner has sought for striking down Sub-section (2) of Section 14 of the Act on the ground that it is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. The contention of the petitioner is that no doubt Subsection (2) of Section 14 of the Act authorises the Deputy Commissioner to reserve one constituency for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but it does not lay down norms for exercising such power. Therefore, there is every likelihood of arbitrary exercise of power by the Deputy Commissioner. It is submitted that arbitrary exercise of power is Writ-large in the case on hand because the Deputy Commissioner has reserved Bangalore North Constituency for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes where there are not many voters belong to S.C. and S.T. The contention proceeds on the basis that only such constituency for SC and ST shall, be reserved wherein the majority of voters belong to SC and ST. There is no basis for this contention in as much as neither the Act nor the Rules framed under the Act provide that such constituency for SC and ST should be reserved wherein the majority of voters belong to SC and ST. Section 14(2) of the Act in clear terms provides that the Deputy Commissioner shall reserve one such constituency for SC and ST. Thus in clear terms it provides that any one of the constituencies can be reserved for SC and ST. The criteria for reservation is not that the constituency must be such in which the majority of the voters shall belong to SC and ST, it is the seat that is reserved for SC and ST. It is not the law that the voters belonging to SC and ST should be reserved to vote for SC and ST candidates only. Such a provision will be opposed to free exercise of franchise and it will strike at the very root of free exercise of franchise and will be opposed to the basic notions of democratic institutions. It would amount to segregating SC and ST voters. Therefore any one constituency can be reserved for SC and ST irrespective of the fact whether the majority of voters therein belong to SC and ST or not. Therefore, I do not see any justification to accept the contention that Sub-section (2) of Section 14 of the Act suffers from the vice of arbitrariness and thereby comes under the teeth of Article 14 of the Constitution. Hence, the contention is rejected. That being so, there is no ground to issue Rule.
Writ Petition is accordingly rejected reserving liberty to the petitioner to approach the Deputy Commissioner if the agriculturists constituencies are formed in such a manner wherein a number of voters in each constituency are not as far as practicable the same throughout the market area.