JUDGMENT - N.P. CHAPALGAONKER, J. :--- This is a petition by one Shri Bhagvan Rambhau Karankal, who is elected as a Municipal Councillor for Dhule Municipal Council in the month of December 1996. The petition challenges a notice purported to have been issued under section 51(2) of the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, 1965 (hereinafter called as Municipalities Act for the purpose of brevity) by respondent No. 2 Collector, Dhule by which the members of the Dhule Municipal Council were called upon to elect President in a meeting which was scheduled to take place on 21-12-1996. The challenge is to a note in the said notice specifying that the Council will have to elect the President for a period ending on 26-2-1997 from un-reserved category. 2.It is contended by the petitioner that as provided by section 52 of the Municipalities Act, the term of office of the President shall be one year. Therefore, the newly elected members of the Council have a right to elect their President for a period of one year and the Collector has no jurisdiction to curtail that term and impose a condition on the Councillors that they should elect the President only for a period which would end on 26-2-1997 meaning thereby that the President elected at the meeting would enjoy the term of about 65 days. 3.Shri P.M. Shah, learned Counsel for the petitioner, contended that section 52 of the Municipalities Act gives a statutory right to any person elected to be in the office for a period of one year and if put in a different way, the Councillors have a right to elect a President for a period of one year and this term being a statutory mandate, cannot be given a go-by or curtailed by any rule framed by the State Government or a notification or a direction issued by the respondent No. 2. Shri Shah contended that the scheme of the Act goes to show that except in the case of casual vacancies the term of office of the President shall always be of one year. According to him, section 321 gives rule making power to the State Government but sub-section (2) of the said section specifically limits that power laying down that the rules shall be consistent with the Acts and generally to carry out the purposes of the Act. According to him, section 321 gives rule making power to the State Government but sub-section (2) of the said section specifically limits that power laying down that the rules shall be consistent with the Acts and generally to carry out the purposes of the Act. Even in the absence of this provision, Shri Shah submits that any rule, being a delegated legislation, will not over-ride the principal legislation and, therefore, no rule can be interpreted to mean that the statutory right given to the Councillors to elect a President for one year, can be abrogated. The second submission advanced by Shri Shah is that when the Municipal Council is dissolved and general elections take place, whatever rights the earlier Councillors had, are automatically extinguished and any liability which they may carry, cannot be brought forward and the new members cannot be burdened with it. According to him, the reservations provided for, as permissible under the constitutional mandate and the statute, are to be enforced during the existence of a Council. Every Councillor elected for a specific period of five years will have to be governed by the rules so as to give him an opportunity to enjoy the statutory rights which would begin from the date when the new Council comes into existence and which would expire on the day when the Council is dissolved. 4.The respondent No. 2, Collector, Dhule, in exercise of his powers under section 51(A) of Municipalities Act and the Maharashtra Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats (President Election) Rules 1981, as amended, issued an order reserving the posts of Presidents in Municipal Councils in Dhule district for a period of 10 years commencing from 3rd March 1995 and directing that the elections which would take place after 3rd March 1995 will be governed by the said reservations. There is no dispute that before dissolution of the Council, by efflux of time, the President elected was from unreserved category. At the time of dissolution of his office, he had not completed full term of one year and the roster, as interpretted by the Collector, would leave the Presidentship of Dhule Municipal Council unreserved upto 26th February 1997. The respondent No. 2, therefore, issued a notice directing the Municipal Councillors newly elected, to elect a President keeping the post of President unreserved for a period which would end on 26-2-1997. The respondent No. 2, therefore, issued a notice directing the Municipal Councillors newly elected, to elect a President keeping the post of President unreserved for a period which would end on 26-2-1997. 5.The 74th constitutional amendment inserting Part 9-A in the Constitution makes it mandatory to reserve the offices of the chair-persons in the Municipalities but leaves it to the Legislature of the State to provide for the manner in which the reservation shall be made. Section 51(1)(a) of the Municipalities Act lays down that the offices of the Presidents shall be reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women and the Backward Class of citizens in the prescribed manner. The State Government, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 321, to give effect to the above said provisions, has amended Maharashtra Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats (President Elections) Rules, 1981 and Rule 2(A) directs the Collector to reserve for a period of 10 years commencing from the first election of the President after commencement of this amendment, the posts of the Presidents in the Municipal bodies for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward class citizens and women as prescribed by sub-rules (2) to (5). The order issued by the Collector and the roster fixed by him is not in dispute before us. There is no challenge to any of the Rules or the provisions of the Act. The petitioner's grievance is in a short compass alleging that the rules and the statutory provisions have not been properly implemented. 6.The Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships (Amendment) Act, 1995 inserted a Proviso to section 52 of the principal Act which reads as under : "Section 52 Proviso : Provided that a person elected as a President to fill the casual vacancy in the office of the President as provided in sub-section (a) of section 51 shall continue in the office of the President only so long as the person in whose place he is elected would have been entitled to continue if such vacancy had not occured." Relying on this provision, Shri Shah submits that if a vacancy is not a casual vacancy, it will have to be filled in for a full year and not for any lesser term. According to Shri Shah, the person who was holding the post of President of Dhule Municipal Council before the last general elections in the year 1995, vacated the office because of dissolution of the Council and since his Councillorship itself came to an end, by no stretch of imagination, this can be termed to be a casual vacancy. Shri Shah further submits that when the newly elected Councillors are asked to elect the President for the first time, they are electing the President not to fill in a vacancy but to fulfill their statutory obligation to have a President elected. Any election for filling the vacancy would only mean any subsequent election and not the first one. 7.Though the term "casual vacancy" has not been defined in this Act, it is defined to be any vacancy occuring by death, resignation or any other event and not by effluxion of time, in Law Lexicon. Casual means accidental or which has arisen due to a chance and it is not a regular or a permanent one. Something unforseen takes place and the vacancy is there. 8.We do not find anything unacceptable in the submission made by Shri Shah that the election impugned was not for filling any casual vacancy. The Proviso to section 52 added by the Amending Act of 1995 is also not applicable to the instant case since the vacancy mentioned in the Proviso would last till the person in whose place he is elected would have been entitled to continue if such vacancy had not occured. The earlier President of the Dhule Municipal Council ceases to hold office because of dissolution of the Council and, therefore, he would not have continued till 26-2-1997 and hence it cannot be said that the casual vacancy had arisen which is governed by the Proviso added. The earlier President was not elected to continue in office till 26th February 1997. He was elected for a term of one year or till dissolution of the Council. Section 51 of the Municipalities Act provides that every Council shall have a President who shall be elected by the elected Councillors from amongst themselves. Section 41 provides that the term of office of the Councillors shall be co-terminous with the duration of the Council and by virtue of section 40, every Council continues for a specific period of five years, unless sooner dissolved. Section 41 provides that the term of office of the Councillors shall be co-terminous with the duration of the Council and by virtue of section 40, every Council continues for a specific period of five years, unless sooner dissolved. 9.Though the words "co-terminous with the term of the elected Councillors" have been deleted from section 52, it can never be imagined that the President would continue in office despite dissolution of the Council. The words had to be deleted because a term lesser than the duration of the Council is now prescribed by the Amending Act. The provisions of sections 40 and 41 will have to be read together with section 52 and if the Councillor only can be the President and the Councillor's terms comes to an end as soon as the Council is dissolved, it will have to be held that the President also will cease to be in office as soon as the Council of which he was a Councillor is dissolved. Therefore, there is no difficulty in accepting the submission of Shri Shah that it is not that casual vacancy which was to be filled in in the election impugned in this writ petition. 10.The provisions of section 52 laying down the term of office of the President to be one year, cannot be read in isolation. It will have to be read along with the other provisions of the Statute and the Rules. A constitutional mandate to have reservation in the office of the chairperson is to be respected. The reservation of office of the chair-person as provided under Article 243 T(4) has a sanctity. Section 51-A of the Act provides that the offices of the Presidents shall be reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women and the Backward Class of citizens in the prescribed manner. This provision was inserted to give effect to the constitutional mandate. Accordingly, it is prescribed that there shall be a roster reserving the President's posts. The reservation in the roster will have to be read along with the provisions of section 52. If the post is reserved for a particular class for a duration, it cannot be presumed that the President, who was elected earlier and who does not belong to that class, will continue in the office mainly because of the provisions of section 52. If the post is reserved for a particular class for a duration, it cannot be presumed that the President, who was elected earlier and who does not belong to that class, will continue in the office mainly because of the provisions of section 52. 11.It is an admitted fact that one year's term for the office of the President commencing from 25th February 1996 to 25th February 1997 was for unreserved category. During this period, any President to be elected should be from unreserved category. Since the term was to end on 25th February 1997, such President belonging to unreserved category could not have continued for any longer period since that post was thereafter reserved for Other Backward Classes. In view of this, we do not find any fault with the impugned Notification and the Collector was justified in declaring the election for the period ending on 25-2-1997. 12.Since that term is now over, the new elections, which the respondent Collector will declare, shall be for the new category for which the post is reserved. We, therefore, reject the petition and direct the Collector to issue a fresh election programme according to rules for electing a President of Dhule Municipal Council and specify the category for which the President's post is reserved. 13.Rule accordingly discharged. There shall be no order as to costs. Petition rejected.