CWP No.15048 of 2010 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.15048 of 2010 Date of decision: 20.12.2010 Parveen Rani ....Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ....Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ALOK SINGH Present: - Mr. Parminder Singh, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Gaurav Dhir, DAG, Haryana. Mr. Sanjay Chauhan, Advocate, for respondent No.4. Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Advocate, for respondent No.5. 1.Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2.Whether to be referred to the Reporters or not? 3.Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? ***** ALOK SINGH, J (ORAL) The sole question involved in this petition is as to whether respondent No.5, who was elected from the ward reserved for the scheduled caste category, shall be eligible to contest and elected as President of the Municipal Committee, which is reserved for the scheduled caste women category? Learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently argued that since respondent No.5 was not elected from the ward reserved for scheduled caste women category, hence is not eligible to be elected for the post of President, which is reserved for the scheduled caste women category. Learned counsel for the petitioner further argued that since petitioner is only candidate who contested and elected as member from the ward, which was reserved for the scheduled caste women category, CWP No.15048 of 2010 -2- hence petitioner is alone eligible to be elected as President of the Municipal Committee, the post which is reserved for scheduled caste women category. The issue raised in the present petition is no more res integra. Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of Kasambhai F. Ghanchi Vs. Chandubhai D. Rajput and others, (1998) 1 Supreme Court Cases 285 has held as under: - “Therefore, the appellant who belongs to the Backward Class was eligible to stand for the office of President even though he had been elected as a member of the municipality not from a reserved seat but from a general seat. As per the roster it is a Backward Class member who in the year 1997 was to be the President of the Jambusar Municipality. The appellant, who admittedly belongs to a Backward Class could not be regarded as being ineligible merely because he had not been elected to a seat which had been reserved for a Backward Class candidate. Consequently his election as the President, on this ground, could not have been set aside.” In view of the dictum of the Apex Court, question raised in the present petition stands answered. Accordingly petition is dismissed. (Alok Singh) Judge December 20, 2010 R.S.