Date:15/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/15/stories/2006091521470300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

High Court asks Government to hold mayoral elections

Staff Reporter

Notification changing reservation roster quashed

Order passed on petition by Vijaya Arun

Polls to be held in accordance with August 2005 notification

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday quashed a notification by the State Government changing the reservation roster for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Mangalore.

The court passed this order on a petition by Vijaya Arun, a councillor from Kadri, Mangalore, who had challenged a July 10, 2006 notification by the Government effecting changes in reservation for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Justice B.S. Patil allowed the writ petition and directed the State Government to conduct elections for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor expeditiously and in accordance with the earlier notification of August 2, 2005 reserving the post of Mayor in favour of general category (women) and Deputy Mayor in favour of Backward Class (A).

In her petition, Ms. Arun said that though the calendar of events had been published, the Government changed the reservation for post of Mayor to general category and that of the Deputy Mayor to women. This was illegal and arbitrary, she said.

`Confusion cleared'

Mangalore Special Correspondent writes:

Speaking to The Hindu over the phone from Bangalore, legal expert of the Congress Kallige Tharanath Shetty said the ruling had cleared the confusion and it was almost certain that the elections would be held on or before September 25, 2006. The new Mayor will have a term of nine months as the elections to the Mangalore City Corporation Council were due in June 2007.

The present Mayor, K. Ashraf, said that he was rushing back to Mangalore to arrange for the elections.

Ms. Arun told The Hindu over the phone from Bangalore that in the last five years women did not get the Mayor's post. The High Court had seen the justification in the demand of the women councillors for reserving the seat for them.

Leader of the Opposition in the corporation council Shankar Bhat said the BJP had no role to play in changing the reservation category and accused the ruling Congress of not distributing the posts in a manner that was in accordance with the reservation pattern.