JUDGMENT : ( 1. ) THIS petition has been placed before us on a reference by the division Bench of this Court consisting of Honble Shri Justice U. N. Bhachawat and hon,ble Shri Justice R. C. Shrivastava sitting at Gwalior. The question referred to the full Bench reads : "whether the number of seats to be reserved for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes has to be fixed with reference to the total number of seats, that is, of elected as well as selected councillors, or with reference to the 1/2erved for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes has to be fixed with reference to the total number of seats, that is, of elected as well as selected councillors, or with reference to the number of seats for elected councillors only?" It appears that this petition was filed by the petitioner and it was alleged that the Bhind municipality had 35 elected councillors and 7 selected councillors. The State government reserved 7 seats for Scheduled Castes from amongst the elected strength of 35 councillors. The petitioners contention was that out of 35 seats to be filled in by elected councillors only 6 could be reserved for Scheduled Castes and not 7 as has been done by the State Government. ( 2. ) THE number of seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes has to be done on the principles of Article 330 (2) and Article 332 (3) of the constitution and the reservation has been provided under section 29 (l) (b) (iii) of the m. P. Municipalities Act, 1961. This provision provides that the seats to be reserved for scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be with reference to the total number of seats. The question which arose was as to whether this total number of seats to be counted for this purpose of reservation will be total number of seats for elected councillors or total number of seats of the elected and selected councillors in the municipality. The Division Bench has referred to two decisions of this Court, viz. , bhogiram Jatav v. Govt, of M. P. (1978 M. P. LJ. 314=1978 J. L. J. 174) and Nawalsingh v. Govt, of MP. (1979 J. L. J. 606) and after considering these two decisions the Division bench has referred the question quoted above to the Full Bench. Section 29 (1) reads "29. , bhogiram Jatav v. Govt, of M. P. (1978 M. P. LJ. 314=1978 J. L. J. 174) and Nawalsingh v. Govt, of MP. (1979 J. L. J. 606) and after considering these two decisions the Division bench has referred the question quoted above to the Full Bench. Section 29 (1) reads "29. Determination of number of Councillors and powers to make rules for regulating elections. Bhogiram Jatav vs. Govt. of M. P. ( 1978 MPLJ 314 = 1978 jlj 174 ) and Nawalsingh v. Government of M. P. (1979 JLJ 606 ). The State government shall, from time to time generally or specially in respect of each municipality, by notification- (a) determine the number of elected and selected Councillors; provided that the number of elected Councillors shall not be less than five, (b) subject to rules framed under this Act- (i) divide the municipality into wards and define the limits of each such ward; (ii)fix the number of Councillors to be elected for each ward; (iii) fix, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India the number of seats to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes and allot them to the various wards. " Clause (a) of this section provides for determination of number of elected and selected councillors, and Clause (b) sub-clause (i) provides for division of the municipality into wards. Sub-clause (ii) provides for fixing the number of councillors to be elected for each ward. These provisions, therefore, show that although determining the number of councillors will include the number of elected and selected councillors hut the elected councillors have to be allotted to wards fixing the number of councillors to be elected for each ward and in this scheme if sub-clause (iii) is read, it shows that the number of seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be fixed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India and when this number is fixed they will have to be allotted to wards. It is apparent that the selected councillors are not allotted to any ward. The allotment of councillor to a ward is only in respect of elected councillors and it is in this view that the controversy which is the question referred to us has to be determined. ( 3. ) THE scheme of section 29, therefore, indicates that out of the total number of. The allotment of councillor to a ward is only in respect of elected councillors and it is in this view that the controversy which is the question referred to us has to be determined. ( 3. ) THE scheme of section 29, therefore, indicates that out of the total number of. elected councillors a number reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has to be fixed and they have to be allotted to such wards as may be thought desirable. Article 332 (3) reads : " (3) The number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled tribes in the Legislative Assembly of any State under clause (1) shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats in the assembly as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the State or of the scheduled Tribes in the State or part of the State, as the case may be, in respect of which seats are so reserved, bears to the total population of the state. " This provides for reservation in the same proportion as the population of the Scheduled castes or the Scheduled Tribes bears to the general population of that State. This is the principle which has to be applied in fixing the number of seats to be reserved for scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the scheme of section29. In Bhogiram jatav v. Govt. of M. P. ( 1978 JLJ 174 ) a Division Bench of this Court took the view that this number for reservation of the Scheduled Castes has to be fixed on the basis of the number of seats available for election and not the total nummer of seats for the councillors including the selected councillors. In this decision it was observed : "the number of elected councillors fixed for the Municipality Gohad, was 12 and three were to be selected. The question is what should be considered as the total number of seats. Shri A. B. Mishras contention is that for the purpose of fixing the proportion in the present case, the number of elected as well as selected councillors must be taken into account; i. e. total 15. We are unable to accede to this submission. S. 29 (l) (a) of the Act speaks of determining the number of elected and selected councillors. We are unable to accede to this submission. S. 29 (l) (a) of the Act speaks of determining the number of elected and selected councillors. The election takes place first and the elected councillors have to select the fixed number of selected councillors (vide S. 19 of the Act ). Section 29 (b) (iii) provides for allotment of the reserved number of seats of the wards. Rule 3 (f) of the rules further provides that seats reserved either for the Scheduled Castes or for the Scheduled Tribes shall, as far as practicable, be allotted in the wards in which the population of the scheduled Castes or as the case may be, of the Scheduled Tribes is most concentrated. Thus the reserved seats are allotted to particular wards from which election of councillors is to take place. Consequently, the question of allotment of reserved seats would arise only in respect of elected councillors and not in respect of selected councillors who will be selected by the elected councillors. We are, therefore, of opinion that for the purpose of fixing the proportion of the reserved seats for the Scheduled Castes, the total number of seats to be taken into consideration would be of the elected councillors only. Thus, for the purpose of fixing the number of reserved seats for Scheduled Castes, the basis would be the total number of seats of the elected councillors which, in the present case, is 12, and the proportion of seats reserved for the Scheduled castes to the total number of seats of elected councillors would come to less than 2, 5, i. e. , two only. In this view of the matter, we are unable to hold that the elections in question are vitiated. " ( 4. ) THE language used in clause (b) (iii) of Section 29 makes the position clear that the number of seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has to be fixed and then they are to be allotted to the various wards. " ( 4. ) THE language used in clause (b) (iii) of Section 29 makes the position clear that the number of seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has to be fixed and then they are to be allotted to the various wards. It, therefore, appears that the reservation of seats has to be made for elected councillors and that reservation has also to be made by allotting those seats to the Wards which are so determined as contemplated in sub-clause (i) of clause (b) of section 29 (1) and it is this which weighed with the Division Bench when it took the view that for fixing the number of seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the number of elected councillors has to be taken into account and not the number of selected councillors. ( 5. ) THE other Division Bench decision to which a reference has been made is nawal Singh v. Government of M. P. (1979 J. L. J. 606 ). In this decision this question as to whether for fixing the number of seats to be reserved, the number of selected councillors should or should not be considered was not specifically raised nor decided as in this judgment it was observed : "it is not disputed that the total population of Jora Municipality at the relevant time was 10,007 out of which 1,184 were Scheduled Castes members according to the census report of 1971. The petitioner contends that in view of the above provisions, the Government should have fixed two seats for scheduled Castes and since they had fixed only one seat, they have not fixed the number of Scheduled Castes seats in the council in accordance with the proportion the scheduled castes population bears to the population of the Jora municipality. This being a material illegality, it is urged, the election of the 12 wards is vitiated. The question in the petition is whether or not the fixation of one seat for the Scheduled Castes out of the 15 seat Council of the Jora municipality would be said to contravene sub-clause (iii) of Clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 29 of the Act. According to the requirement of the above provisions the reservation in the Council must bear the same proportion as the general population of the Municipality. According to the requirement of the above provisions the reservation in the Council must bear the same proportion as the general population of the Municipality. " It is, therefore, plain that although it appears that in this decision while considering the ratio of the population of the municipality with that of the Scheduled Castes, the number of seats i. e. total number of councillors is considered but the question as to whether for determining the number of seats to be reserved on the principle under article 332 (3) the number of councillors to be considered should be the number of elected councillors only of the total number of councillors elected and selected. It appears from this judgment that this question was neither agitated nor decided although while considering the validity of the reservation made by the State Government it appears that a reference is made to the total number of councillors i. e. 15, whereas in that municipality 12 were elected and 3 were selected and on this basis it appears that the Division Bench felt that this judgment takes a contrary view. But, in our opinion, this question has not been decided in this Division Bench judgment. ( 6. ) APART from it, it is clear that the principle which has to be applied and which is the principle provided in Article 332 (3) which talks of the Legislative Assembly and reservation of seats in the Assembly and for that purpose the principle enunciated is that the number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes shall bear as nearly as may be the same proportion to the total number of seats in the Assembly as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the State or Scheduled Tribes in the State in respect of which the seats are so reserved bears to the total population of the State. This principle under Article 332 (3), therefore, contemplates the proportion to be determined on the basis of members to be elected to the council and the number of seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes members. Similarly, the language of sub-clause (iii) of clause (b) of section 29 (1) of the M. P. Municipalities Act, 1961, talks of reservation of number of seats to be elected from the respective wards. Similarly, the language of sub-clause (iii) of clause (b) of section 29 (1) of the M. P. Municipalities Act, 1961, talks of reservation of number of seats to be elected from the respective wards. As is clear from the language of that section that after the number to be reserved is determined, they have to be allotted to various wards and it is claimed that allotment of the reserved seats to wards is only for the purpose of election from that ward of a councillor of the reserved community i. e. Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes and, therefore, the proportion which has to be maintained as laid down in Article 332 (3) has to be of the total number of elected councillors with the number of elected councillors of the reserved category vis-a-vis the total number of population of the municipal council who are electors to the population of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe who are electors within the limits of the municipal council and in this view of the matter, therefore, in our opinion, to continue the number of seats for reservation the number of councillors to be elected only is to be considered as the selection is altogether on a different footing. If the legislature had intended to have reservation even in the selection it would have been specifically so provided. ( 7. ) IN this view of the matter, therefore, in our opinion, our answer to the question referred is that while fixing the number of seats for reservation for Scheduled Castes and scheduled Tribes, the total number of seats which have to be considered is only the total number of elected councillors and not the total number of councillors including the selected councillors. ( 8. ) IN view of the answer to the question referred to us, it is directed that the petition be placed before the Division Bench at Gwalior for its disposal in accordance with the answer to the question given by us. In the circumstances of the case, so far as this reference is concerned, parties are directed to bear their own costs. Reference answered accordingly.