JUDGMENT Sidheswar Narayan, J: In both the above writ applications filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the petitioners have challenged one and the same Notification, bearing No. 12RE dated 20th March, 1995 issued by the State Election Commission of the State of West Bengal regarding reservation of seats for SC/ST candidates and for women in the ensuing Municipal, Elections in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation expected to be held on in June/July, 1995. The learned Trial Court has passed an order, in both the writ applications, inter-alia, directing that the status quo as on the date of said order was to be maintained till certain time and subsequently, the interim order was allowed to continue until further orders and accordingly the whole election process has since been held up. Being aggrieved by the said interim order, the State of West Bengal has come up with two separate appeals with regard to both the writ applications. By the consent of the parties the writ applications as also the appeals arising out of those have been taken up together for hearing and disposal. 2. The writ petitioners of matter No. 679/95 were the voters in Ward No. 45 of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and one of them, being petitioner No.1. was desirous of cortesting the ensuing election from Ward No. 45 of the said Corporation. The sole writ petitioner of matter No 724/95 was the voter of Ward No. 11 of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and claimed himself to be prospective candidate in the ensuing Municipal Election. Be it noted however, that the right to elect or to be elected is a right conferred under the statute and it is only in the event of there being an infraction 4/5 of the statutory provisions, the notification of our jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution can be had and for no other reason since it cannot be termed to be a right guaranteed under the Constitution or a right under common law. It's a mere statutory right infraction of which will give rise to a cause of action. To this context the observations of the Supreme Court in the case of Jyoti Basu vs. Debi Ghosal ( AIR 1982 SC 983 ) seem to be very apposite. It's a mere statutory right infraction of which will give rise to a cause of action. To this context the observations of the Supreme Court in the case of Jyoti Basu vs. Debi Ghosal ( AIR 1982 SC 983 ) seem to be very apposite. The Supreme Court in Paragraph 8 of the report observed :- “A right to elect, fundamental though it is to democracy, is anomalously enough, neither a fundamental right nor a Common Law Right. It is pure and simple, a statutory right. So is the right to be elected. So is the right to dispute an election. Outside of statute there is no right to elect, no right to be elected and no right to dispute an election. Statutory creations they are, and therefore, subject to statutory limitation. An election petition is not an action at Common Law, nor in equity. It is a statutory proceeding to which neither the Common Law nor the principles of equity apply but only those rules which the statute makes and applies. It is a special jurisdiction, and a special jurisdiction has always to be exercised in accordance with the statute creating it. Concepts familiar to Common Law and Equity must remain strangers to Election Law unless statutorily embodied. A Court has no right to resort to them on considerations of alleged policy because policy in such matters as those, relatnig to the trial of election disputes, is what the statute lays down. In the trial of election in disputes, Court is put in a straight jacket." 3. Turning attention on to the notification under challenge in both the writ-applications has been issued in exercise of power conferred by Rule 3 of the West Bengal Municipal Elections (Reservation of Seats) Rules, 1994 by and under the seal of the prescribed authority of the State Election Commission and it purports to publish the draft of the order to determine (1) name of the Municipality, (2) number of members to be elected to the Municipality, (3) number of constituency. (4) constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. (5) constituencies reserved for women. (4) constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. (5) constituencies reserved for women. Since, in both the matters, it were the reservation modalities prescribed in the West Bengal Municipal Elections (Reservation of seats) Rules, 1994 (for short the Rules), it would be apt to first trace out the origin of the said Rules which can be have had in Article 243T of the Constitution of India, introduced through Constitution (Seventy Fourth Amendment) Act of 1992 which came into force on April 20, 1993. 4. The verse of Article 243T being very much relevant is quoted as below: "243T. Reservation of seats. (1) Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every Municipality and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as merely as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Municipality as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the Municipality area of the Scheduled Tribes in the Municipal area bears to the total population of that area and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality. (2) Not less than one -third of the total number of seats reserved under Clause (1) shall be reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes, or as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes. (3) Not less than one third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Municipality shall be reserved for women and such seats may be allotted by rotation different constituencies in a Municipality. (4) The officers or chairpersons in the Municipalities shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women in such manner as the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide. (5) The reservation of seats under Clauses (1) and (2) and the reservation of offices of chairpersons (other than the reservation for women) under clause (4) shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the period specified in Article 334. (6) Nothing in this part shall prevent the Legislature of a State from making any provision for reservation of seats in any Municipality or offices or chairpersons in the Municipalities in favour of backward class of citizens." 5. (6) Nothing in this part shall prevent the Legislature of a State from making any provision for reservation of seats in any Municipality or offices or chairpersons in the Municipalities in favour of backward class of citizens." 5. Following the constitutional amendment referred to above and pursuant to the provision in Clause (6) of the Article, the State of West Bengal, later on, enacted the West Bengal Municipal Elections Act, 1914, which having received the assent of the Governor was first published in the Calcutta Gazette, extraordinary, of the 20th July, 1994 and the relevant provision regarding the reservation of seats were incorporated in section 29 of the said Act which is almost in the same tone as of Article 243 T of the Constitution. 6. Subsequently, in exercise of the power conferred by section 88 read with sub-section (1) and sub-section (3) of section 29 of the West Bengal Municipal Elections Act, 1994, the Governor was pleased to make rules as per the West Bengal Municipal Elections (Reservation of Seats) Rules, 1994. Without any risk of repeatation it may again be pointed out that the challenge under both the writ applications centers around the Rules No. 3 and 4 of the said Rules. The Rule No.3 prescribes the determination of reservation of seats, whereas the Rule No.4, manner of publication of order under Rule 3. The relevant Notice under challenge has been issued in format of Form No. 'A' prescribed under the said Rules. 7. Before the validity of the Notice in Form 'A' is gone into, be it recorded that, with regard to the ensuing election of Calcutta Municipal Corporation there was yet another writ petition bearing motion no . ..1995 filed by Basu Mukherjee and another against the State of Bihar and the Election Authority and out of an ad-interim order in the matter there arose an appeal no... at the instance of the State Government. The vires of the above constitutional amendment as per Article 243 T and the relevant section 29 of the West Bengal Municipal Elections Act, 1994 and also the West Bengal Elections (Reservation of Seats Rules 1994 was challenged. The writ and the appeal were simultaneously heard along with the present two writ petitions and the appeals have been disposed of by a separate order while upholding the constitutional validity of all the aforesaid statutory provisions. The writ and the appeal were simultaneously heard along with the present two writ petitions and the appeals have been disposed of by a separate order while upholding the constitutional validity of all the aforesaid statutory provisions. The decision would certainly circumscribe the scope of the present two writ petitions and it was accordingly not open for the writ petitioners to question the validity of the aforesaid statutory provisions. What was left to be examined was whether the notice dated 20.3.95 issued in the format of Form No. 'A' was in conformity with the aforesaid statutory provisions. I would therefore, first proceed to narrate the gist of the statutory provisions which would be relevant in the factual matrix of the matter raised in the present writ petitions. 8. The sum and substance of the provisions made in Rule 3 of the West Bengal Municipal Elections (Reservation of Seats) Rules 1994, based on the Article 243T of the Constitution and section 29 of the West Bengal Municipal Elections Act, 1994 was that the percentage of SC/ST population to the total population of the municipality has to be first determined and an equivalent percentage of the total seats is to be kept as reserved seats. This number of reserved seats of which not less than 1/3 would be for SC/ST women is to be allotted among constituencies by rotation. The percentage of SC/ST population in every ward has to be calculated and those wards in which percentage of SC/ST population is less than half of the percentage for the entire municipality are to be kept out of consideration for allotment. The reserved seats are to be allotted among the remaining constituencies in the municipality and for this purpose the remaining constituencies are to be assigned hypothetical number (only for the purpose of applying the number of rotation, and the original value numbers remaining the same) in sequence for example 1, 2, 3, 4. etc. The said wards are then arranged in two groups in ascending order, one group containing the odd numbers (hypothetical numbers) and the other group consisting the even numbers (hypothetical numbers). The allotment of the reserved seats would start at number 1 in the odd group traveling down the list and out of the seats reserved for SC/ST candidates every third seat is to be earmarked for SC/ST women. The allotment of the reserved seats would start at number 1 in the odd group traveling down the list and out of the seats reserved for SC/ST candidates every third seat is to be earmarked for SC/ST women. The number of seats to be reserved for women in the general category shall be 1/3 of the total number of seats in the municipality less the number reserved for SC/ST women. This number is to be allotted among the seats other than SC/ST reserved seats. For this purpose the available seats are assigned hypothetical serial numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 4, and arranged in ascending order and, there upon, reservation for women in the general category has to be made for every third seats starting from the beginning, 9. On an analysis of reservation of seats for the ensuing Calcutta Municipal Corporation Election on the basis of the aforesaid modalities, prescribed in the statutes, it would be found that the total population of the Municipality was 43,85,176, out of which the population of SC was 2,81 ,840, which represents 6.4% of the total population and, that being as such, out of the total number of constituencies being 141 as many as 9 seats have to be reserved in accordance with the provision under Rule 3 (1) a) of the Rules. Out of those 9 seats, 3 seats have to be reserved for SC women in accordance with the Rule 3 (1) (b) (ii) of the Rules. The notice-in-question does allocate 9 seats as reserved for SC including 3 seats for SC women. It may be added here that since the population of ST in the Municipality was only 8, 407. there was no reservation for that class as permitted under Rule 3 (l )(a)Proviso (iii) of the Rules. 10. As per Rule 3 (2) (a) of the Rules some such wards, in which percentage of SC was less than half of the percentage for the entire municipality, were to be kept out of consideration for allotment. In compliance to this provision, it has been, rightly pointed out on behalf of the State Government that there were only 88 wards which had a population of SC having 3,2 per cent or more (half of 6.4% being the percentage of the total population of the wh01e of municipality. In compliance to this provision, it has been, rightly pointed out on behalf of the State Government that there were only 88 wards which had a population of SC having 3,2 per cent or more (half of 6.4% being the percentage of the total population of the wh01e of municipality. Since the remaining 53 wards out of 14) had population of SC less than 3.2 percentage, those were left out and excluded from the list of the reservation. The selected 88 wards on being devided as per odd numbers and even numbers, would give a list of 44 wards as odd numbers and equally 44 wards as even numbers. For the purpose of the ensuing election the list of wards of the group odd numbers have been first taken up and out of that list it is to be found that the first 9 wards in descending order are ward nos. 1, 5, 11, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37 and 47, which do find place in the column No. 4 of the notice dated 20.3 9S as constituencies reserved' for SC. Out of those 9 wards as many as 3 wards being in descending order i.e., 1, 29 and 35 have been shown in the notice as reserved for SC women candidates. It has, therefore, to be noticed that the identification of the reserved seats for SC candidates and the rotation thereof are quite in order and in compliance with the relevant provisions under the Rules 11. How adverting to the reservation of seats for women I find a figure of 47 seats being not less than 1/3 of total number of seats ie., 141. Since as many as 9 wards (including 3 for SC women) out of 141 have been reserved for Scheduled Castes candidate, the reamaining 132 wards were available for reservation of seats for women of general category in rotation. After arranging those 132 ward numbers in the descending order every third seat has to be reserved for women and that would certainly give the figures of ward nos. 2, 6, 9, 13, 16. 19, 22, 25, 28, 34, 39, 42, 45, 49, 52, 55, 58, 61, 64, 67, 70, 73, 76, 79, 82, 85, 88, 91, 94, 97, 100, 103, 106, 109, 112, l15, 118, 121, 124, 127, 130, 133, 136, and 139 (total 44 for women of general category). 2, 6, 9, 13, 16. 19, 22, 25, 28, 34, 39, 42, 45, 49, 52, 55, 58, 61, 64, 67, 70, 73, 76, 79, 82, 85, 88, 91, 94, 97, 100, 103, 106, 109, 112, l15, 118, 121, 124, 127, 130, 133, 136, and 139 (total 44 for women of general category). It may be mentioned here that three wards bearing serial Nos.1, 29 and 35 have been reserved for women of SC. The total number of wards reserved for women was thus 47 in all. The figures arrived as such were certainly in consonance with the provisions under Rule 3 (2) (b) of the Rules. 2. As against the above analysis, it was urged on behalf of the writ petitioners that certain wards having population of 50% or above of the total population or having more concentrated SC population have been left out of reservation and some other wards having population as low as 3% have been declared as reserved. In first blush this attempt to challenge the identification of wards for reservation did appear to have some substance, but a strict scrutiny of the figures with reference to the relevant rules has made it abundantly clear that, in fact, there was no such violation of the rule. It was probably on some mis-interpretation of the provision that it has been contended that where the SC population of a particular ward was less than half of the total population of that ward, such ward should not be reserved. The relevant rule being No. 3(2)(a) means to prescribe that the ward in which the percentage of population of SC was less than half of the percentage of the entire municipality was to be kept out of reservation. So, the percentage of population of SC of a particular ward was to be examined in the context of the percentage of the total population of SC of the entire municipality' (not of a particular ward). Further mone, it is well to notice that there was no statutory provision to give preference for reservation to the wards having higher percentage of population of SC or to any such concentration of population in a particular ward. Further mone, it is well to notice that there was no statutory provision to give preference for reservation to the wards having higher percentage of population of SC or to any such concentration of population in a particular ward. All that was required under the Rules was that after excluding the wards having less than half of the percentage of the total population of the entire municipality, the remaining wards were to be arranged in two groups in ascending order, one group containing the odd numbers and the other group containing the even numbers and, thereupon, one of the two groups had to be selected for the first term of the election. In the instant case the group of odd numbers had been selected for the el1suing election, whereas the group of even numbers, though some of those having higher percentage of population of SC or concentration of such populationl has been left over. In my considered opinion, there was thus a complete and satisfactory answer to the objection raised on behalf of the writ petitioners. There appears no necessity to spell out the list of such wards having less than 3.2% population of SC and also that of the group of even numbers, which certainly does not and cannot find place in the notice under challenge. 13. The chart of the reservation of seats for women as given in the Notice was also challenged with reference to the specimen roster chart annexed to the West Bengal Municipal Elections (Reservation of Seats) Rules, 1994. It was true that the chart given in the notice does not tally with the roster chart annexed to the Rules. The relevant chart annexed to the Rules, gives the number of wards reserved for women as 1, 4,7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, 37 and so on whereas, in the notice, the wards reserved for women of general category bears Nos. as 2 6 9 13 16 19 22, 25, 28, 34, 39, 42, 45 and so on This contention of the writ petitioners has however, no substance for the simple reason that the roster chart annexed to the rules was just an illustrative one, giving the ward numbers for reservation in the State of an ordinary course. as 2 6 9 13 16 19 22, 25, 28, 34, 39, 42, 45 and so on This contention of the writ petitioners has however, no substance for the simple reason that the roster chart annexed to the rules was just an illustrative one, giving the ward numbers for reservation in the State of an ordinary course. The roster annexed to the rules does not contemplate the exclusion of the numbers of such constituencies are to be reserved for SC candidates. But, for the purpose of the preparation of roster in the notice-in-question, the wards reserved for SC candidates being g in number (1, 5, 11, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, and 47) have been excluded and, thereafter, out of the remaining 132 wards every third ward in ascending order has been reserved for women candidates of general category. Therefore, on this score also there appears no violation of any statutory provision. 14. As a last resort, a plea of political motivation was also raised on behalf of the writ petitioners and it was urged that the reservations of wards have been made in a manner so as to gain favour for ruling party. This plea, was however, just speculate one. There is no gainsaying that in the matter of election some speculations do gel momentum and the electionaring campaign is often led by certain strategies on such speculations. Such strategies cannot, however, raised as an issue for adjudication in the Court of Law, much less to evoke the discretionary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution. It is apt simply to observe on the factual score of the instant case the preparation of the reservation chart and the rotation determined in the notice under challenge appears to have been made in due course of official business. 15. On the wake of the finding, as above, question of having an ad-interim order in the matter does not and cannot arise and as such, the appeals are a lowed and the writ petitions are dismissed. There shall however, be no order as to costs. Prayer for stay was made and the same is refused. U.C. Banerjee J.-I agree. Appeals allowed. Writ Petitions dismissed.