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03. The case of the petitioner is that the principle of rotation of reservation was not followed while reserving wards and on examination, it came to be known that thirteen wards, which were previously reserved for Scheduled Castes and three wards which were earlier reserved for Scheduled Tribes have again been reserved for the same categories without any change or rotation, meaning thereby violating the rotational reservation principle enshrined in Rule 4 of the Reservation Rules, 1994 and which was also goes against the mandate as provided in Article 243T of the Constitution of India.

26. This Court in the case of Sunil v/s The State of Madhya Pradesh & Another reported in 2005 (1) M.P.L.J. 180 has held that the principle of rotation is not applicable in respect of the seats reserved for SC & ST. Relevant paragraph of the same is reproduced below:-

NEUTRAL CITATION NO. 2025:MPHC-IND:18728 ''7. From the perusal of Section 11(2) and (4) of the Act, it is apparent that the seats reserved for other backwards classes and women shall be reserved by rotation, but in respect of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, there is no provision for reservation by rotation. The emphasis in Sub-section (1) is that wards which are most concentrated with the population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for that purpose. Rule 3 of the Rules provides that out of the total number of wards determined under Sub-section (1) of Section 10 of the Act, such number of wards shall be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in every Municipal Corporation of which in the total number of wards determined for that Municipal Corporation as nearly as may be, the same which is to be total population of the Scheduled Castes or of the Scheduled Tribes in that Municipal Corporation bears to the total population of that Municipal Corporation and such wards shall be those in a descending order in which the population of the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes, as the case may be, is most concentrated. Aforesaid Rule 3 of the Rules provides that the population of a particular ward shall be determined on the basis of persons belonging to Scheduled Castes residing in that ward and the criteria for reservation will be population which is concentrated in the ward, and the reservation will be as per population but in descending order. Meaning thereby, in a particular ward, the population of Scheduled Castes shall be determined on the basis of the persons residing in that particular ward and for the reservation, the first number of the ward in the seniority shall be taken into consideration in which the population of the Scheduled Castes is higher in percentage. Under Rule 4 of the Rules there is provision for subsequent reservation but the principle of rotation is applicable only in the case where such rotation is provided but in the case of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes persons, principle of rotation is not made applicable. The respondents on the basis of population in wards have found the aforesaid six wards to be most concentrated with the persons belonging to Scheduled Castes in descending order and have reserved the aforesaid six wards as per the percentage of population of Scheduled Caste persons.

sections (1), (2) and (3) shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the period specified in Article 334 of the Constitution of India.

15. In view of our preceding analysis of the law, the writ petition deserves to succeed. The notification dated 28.11.2020 (Annexure P-1) to the extent of providing reservation of 07 seats to Other Backward Classes (OBC) is set-aside with a direction to the respondents to provide reservation only for 06 (six) seats to the OBC to implement the direction of the Government dated 29.08.2019 and undertake a fresh exercise to provide such reservation by rotation in terms of Rule 3(3) of the Rules of 1994. Entire exercise shall be undertaken and completed at the earliest but not later than 15 days.'' [Emphasis Supplied]

29. It is correct that Article 243T says that the seats shall be reserved for the SC & ST in every municipality as per the population, and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in Municipalities. The reservation to the Scheduled Castes & the Scheduled Tribes is mandatory, but such allotment by rotation is optional. As per Section 11 of the Act of 1956, there shall be the NEUTRAL CITATION NO. 2025:MPHC-IND:18728 reservation of wards for the Scheduled Castes & the Scheduled Tribes, where their populations are concentrated, subject to a maximum limit of 50%. In subsequent elections, the same reservation shall be subject to the concentration to population of the Scheduled Castes & the Scheduled Tribes, there could be possibility of change in the concentration, hence, there could be no reservation to the Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes. Therefore, reservation by way of rotation cannot be made compulsory because it is always subject to the concentration of the population. Rule 4 of the Reservation Rules, 1994 talks about reservation of wards at the time of subsequent elections because in every election, the concentration of populations of the Scheduled Castes & the Scheduled Tribes is liable to be examined, according to which reservation will be made to the particular seats, and this cannot be done by way of rotation. Since the criteria to reserve seats for the Scheduled Castes & the Scheduled Tribes are their share in the population of particular wards, hence, there cannot be rotation.