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(6) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the Legislature of a State from making any provision for reservation of seats in any Panchayat or offices of Chairpersons in the Panchayats at any level in favour of backward class of citizens."

27. It may be noted that under Article 243-D there is a clear mandate for the State Legislature to reserve seats for SCs and STs in every panchayat and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Panchayat as the population of the SCs or of the STs in that Panchayat area bears to the total population of the area under consideration. Article 243-D(6) further states that nothing in this Part shall prevent a State Legislature from making any provision for reservation of seats in any Panchayat or offices of Chairpersons in the Panchayats at any level in favour of backward class of citizens. There was no contention on behalf of the petitioners before the High Court that the members of backward class were not entitled to get reservation in the scheduled area. With respect to scheduled castes, the State was bound to provide reservation to them even in the Scheduled Areas. As already noticed, under the PESA 50% of the seats in Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads should be reserved in favour of schedule tribes and the ceiling is fixed to the extent that this reservation put together shall not exceed 80% of the total seats. The contention of the respondents is that this policy will lead to reverse discrimination against persons who are not eligible for such reservation benefits. It may be noticed that this reservation policy is exclusively applicable to scheduled areas which had hitherto been the subject of a separate administrative scheme under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.