1 WP-8383.11.sxw lgc IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.8383 OF 2011 Ashok Raghunath Bokefode : Petitioner versus District Collector Solapur & ors. : Respondents. Mr. Ashok B Tajne for the Petitioner Mr. S D Rayrikar AGP for Respondent No.1 2, and 4. Mr. S B Shetye for the Respondent No.3. CORAM : R M SAVANT, J. DATE : 14th November 2011 P.C. 1 The challenge in the above Petition is to the reservation of Ward No.6 for woman (Scheduled Caste). It is the case of the Petitioner that since the year 1990, till the last election the seat has been reserved for the woman (Scheduled Caste), and in view of the mandate of Article 243T and sub­rule 3(b) of the Maharashtra Municipal Councils Election Rules the said reservation for the ensuing election could not be continued, as the reservation of the seats has to be done by rotation. The Petitioner therefore objected to the said ward No.6 being reserved for woman (Scheduled Caste) which objection has been turned down by the Collector by his order dated 5/7/2011. The Collector has rejected the said objection on the ground that in terms of the directions of the State Government, which have been issued in exercise of powers conferred by the Maharashtra Municipal Councils Act, the wards were re­constituted. Where originally there was one ward, now after reconstitution 3 or 4 wards 2 WP-8383.11.sxw have been clubbed together to constitute one ward and there are multiple seats in each of the wards. The collector has also by adverting to the directions of the State Government, whereby the seat has to be reserved as per descending order of the strength of the population belonging to a particular category held that the objection of the Petitioner could not be sustained. 2 It is required to be noted that the election program has already been published and the nominations have to be filed on 16th November 2011 and the polling is to take place on 8/12/2011. The ensuing election is the first election after the reconstitution of the wards. In my view, the reasons mentioned by the collector in rejecting the objection in the context of the facts as stated above cannot be faulted with. Apart from the said facts, the fact that the election program is already in motion also cannot be lost sight of by this Court. In that view of the matter, no case for interference is made out. The above writ petition is accordingly dismissed. [R.M.SAVANT, J]