JUDGMENT - A.V. SAVANT, J.:---Heard all the learned Counsel. 2.On a motion made by Shri Bhosale, name of respondent No. 3 deleted. 3.Rule. 4.Since the point involved in the petition is covered by the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in (Saraswati Devi v. Smt. Shanti Devi and others)1, A.I.R. 1997 Supreme Court 347 and since out of the period of year, five months are already over, it has become necessary for us to decide the matter expeditiously. Hence, by consent, rule made returnable forthwith and heard all the learned Counsel. The short controversy which arises for our consideration is that both the petitioner and the first respondent are women belonging to the Scheduled Caste. Whereas the petitioner has been elected as councillor from the ward reserved for Scheduled Caste women, the first respondent, though a Scheduled Caste woman, has been elected, from unreserved ward. 5.The dispute relates to the election to the post of President of Indapur Municipal Council, in accordance with the provisions of the Maharashtra Municipal Councils Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, 1965. Under section 51 of the said Act, the election has to be held for the post of the President who has to be elected by the elected Councillors from amongst themselves. In view of Article 243-T of the Constitution, the seats have been reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe in every Municipality and number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly 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 Caste in the Municipal area or 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 wards in a Municipality. Under Rule 2-A of the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats (President Election) Rules, 1981, the Collector of each District has to reserve, by an order published in the Official Gazette for a period of ten years, commencing from the first election of the President the office of the President of each Municipal Council for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class of Citizens and women as prescribed in sub-rules (2) to (5) of Rule 2-A of the said 1981 Rules. Rule 2-A may be reproduced for ready reference. Rule 2-A may be reproduced for ready reference. 2A : Reservation of office of the President (1) The Collector of each district shall, by order published in the Official Gazette, reserve for period of ten years, commencing the first election of the President after the date of commencement of the Maharashtra Municipalities (President Election) Amendment Rules, 1995, the office of the President of each of the Municipal Council or, as the case may be Nagar Panchayat, in the District, for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Backward Class of Citizens and women, as prescribed in sub-Rules (2) to (5) (both inclusive). (2) The order made under sub-section (1) shall indicate the year/years; for which the office of the President is to be reserved for the Scheduled Caste, the Scheduled Tribes, the Backward Class of Citizens and women. (3) (a) The number of years for which the office of President is to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the ten years as the population of the Scheduled Caste or as the case may be, Scheduled Tribes in the Municipal area bears to the total population of the Municipal area. In calculating the years for which office of the President is to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes a fraction of a year below six months shall be ignored and a fraction of a year above six months shall be calculated as one year. (b) One-third of the total number of years reserved under Clause (a) shall be reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes; Provided that where only one year is reserved for the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, Scheduled Tribes, then no year shall be reserved for the women belonging to the Scheduled Castes, or as the case may be, Scheduled Tribes and where only two years are reserved for the Scheduled Caste, or as the case be, Scheduled Tribes, one of the two years shall be reserved for the women belonging to the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, Scheduled Tribes. (4) The number of years for which the office of the President is to be reserved for the Backward Class of Citizens shall be three. Provided that one year out of the years for which office of the President to be reserved for the Backward Class of Citizens shall be reserved for the women belonging to the backward class of citizens. (5) The number of years for which the office of the President to be reserved for women (including women belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Class of Citizens) shall be three. 6.There is no dispute before us that in accordance with the above provisions, a notification was issued by the Additional Collector, Pune on 6th May, 1995 in exercise of the powers vested in him under Rule 2-A of the Maharashtra Municipalities (President Election) (Amendment) Rules, 1995, reserving the office of the President of the Municipal Council of Indapur in the manner mentioned in the statement annexed to the said notification for the entire Pune district, for ten years, for the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Class of Citizens and for women. As far as Indapur Municipal Council, with which we are concerned in the present petition, the relevant roster is as under : ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sr.)Name of)Year of the reservation)The No.)Municipal)commencing from the 1st)year Council)election of the office of)remained President from the date)of this order forun-reserved --------------------------------------------- Scheduled Scheduled Back- Women Castes Tribes ward Class of Citi- zens 1.2. v3(A)3(B)3(C) 3(D)4 5. Indapur 1st (Women) -- 2nd (Women) 4th3rd 6th 5th7th 8th9th 10th ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the light of the above, there is no dispute before us that in the first year with which we are concerned, the post of the President of Indapur Municipal Council was reserved for the Scheduled Caste women. 7.Relying upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in Saraswati Devi v. Smt. Shanti Devi (supra), Shri Bhosale for the petitioner contends that when the thrust of the rule is that office of the President of the Municipality must go by rotation to members belonging to the specified category, it must necessarily mean, in the context of parent Article 243-T of the Constitution of India, that the concerned elected members of the Municipal Committee must have got elected on seats reserved for a particular category namely in this case the ward reserved for Scheduled Caste women. It is contended that the very concept of rotation pre-supposes that for the office of the Presidentship, once by rotation a reservation is made for members elected from a particular category, only those members can contest for Presidentship. Since admittedly the first respondent is not elected as a councillor from the ward reserved for Scheduled Caste women and has been elected from the unreserved ward, she was not eligible to contest the election for the post of President when the post is reserved for Scheduled Caste women. There is no dispute before us that petitioner is a Scheduled Caste woman elected from the ward reserved for Scheduled Caste women. Relying upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in Saraswati Devi's case (supra) we have taken a similar view in the case of (Shankar K. Vayangankar v. The Chief Officer, Vengurla Municipal Council and others)2, Writ Petition No. 2809 of 1997 decided on 24th June, 1997. Shri Bhosale has also placed reliance on the said judgment in Writ Petition No. 2809 of 1997. 8.The election was held on 7th February, 1997. Tenure is one year. Five months are already over. Shri Dhakephalkar appearing for the contesting respondent No. 1 has raised a preliminary objection to the effect that after filing the present petition, the petitioner has also made a representation to the State Government in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (5) of section 51 which reads as under : "51(5): Any dispute regarding election of the President shall be referred to the State Government whose decision in that behalf shall be final." It is contended that since alternate remedy is availed of, this Court should not exercise its extraordinary powers under Article 226 of the Constitution. It is also brought to our notice that there is some distinction between the facts before the Supreme Court in the case under the Haryana Municipal Act, election rules framed thereunder and the facts of the present case. 9.There may be no quarrel with the proposition that when there is an efficacious alternate remedy, this Court may not interfere in a writ petition. However, we are concerned with the election to the post of the President which was reserved under the roster for the Scheduled Caste women. 9.There may be no quarrel with the proposition that when there is an efficacious alternate remedy, this Court may not interfere in a writ petition. However, we are concerned with the election to the post of the President which was reserved under the roster for the Scheduled Caste women. In the light of the ratio of the Supreme Court decision in Saraswati Devi's case with which we will deal later, there is no doubt in our mind that respondent No. 1 was not at all eligible to contest for the post of election of the President of the Municipal Council since she was not elected from the ward reserved for the Scheduled Caste women. As per the rotation, the reservation is for one year. Five months are already over. In the circumstances refusing to interfere in such matter when the legal position is settled would, in our view, defeat the very spirit underlying the scheme of reservation and would render the scheme of reservation nugatory. 10.It is true that sub-section (5) of section 51 contemplates reference of a dispute regarding election of the President to the State Government. However, the explanation of Shri Bhosale is that such a decision takes unduly long time and in the light of the Supreme Court decision, it is an idle formality. Counsel says that the petitioner has made a mistake in approaching the Government after having filed the petition in this Court. Shri Bhosale, therefore, makes a statement that the petitioner hereby withdraws the representation made by her before the State Government. Hence, the representation cum dispute raised by the petitioner before State Government, stands withdrawn in view of the statement made by Shri Bhosale before us. 11.Having thus disposed of the preliminary objection raised by Shri Dhakephalkar, let us examine the ratio of the Supreme Court decision in Saraswati Devi's case. In para 5 of the judgment in Saraswati Devi's case the Supreme Court has referred to the scheme of Article 243-T of the Constitution and provisions of Haryana Municipal Act. The argument advanced by Shri Dhakephalkar is that in order to be elected as the President of the Municipal Council, though the said post is reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman, it was not necessary that the first respondent was elected as a councillor from the ward reserved for Scheduled Caste women. The argument advanced by Shri Dhakephalkar is that in order to be elected as the President of the Municipal Council, though the said post is reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman, it was not necessary that the first respondent was elected as a councillor from the ward reserved for Scheduled Caste women. Such an argument was accepted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in its decision in Saraswati Devi's appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, disagreed with the view taken by Punjab and Haryana High Court and on a consideration of the scheme of reservation and policy underlying the reservation, categorically held that if the thrust of the rule was that office of the President in Municipality must go by rotation to members belonging to the specified categories, it would necessarily mean in the context of parent Article 243-T of the Constitution of India and the relevant provisions of the Act, that the concerned elected councillor of the Municipal Council must have got elected as a councillor from a seat reserved for specified category; in this case, Scheduled Caste women. 12.The Supreme Court has categorically stated in para 5 of the judgment at page 351 as under : When the thrust of the rule is that offices of the Presidents in Municipalities must go by rotation to members belonging to the specified categories, it would necessarily mean in the context of parent Article 243-T of Constitution of India and section 10(5) of the Act that the concerned elected members of the Municipal Committee must have got elected on the seats available to the General Category candidates or Scheduled Castes category candidates or Backward Classes Category candidates or General women category candidates by rotation. The very concept of rotation presupposes that for the contest of Presidentship once by rotation a reservation is made for members elected from a particular category only those members can contest for Presidentship. As admittedly the post of President, Loharun Municipality is subjected to double reservation of being available only to an elected member who is a Scheduled Caste woman she must have been elected on the Scheduled Castes seat from the ward reserved for such Scheduled Caste candidates. As admittedly the post of President, Loharun Municipality is subjected to double reservation of being available only to an elected member who is a Scheduled Caste woman she must have been elected on the Scheduled Castes seat from the ward reserved for such Scheduled Caste candidates. As admittedly only three wards, namely 1, 4 and 5 are reserved for members belonging to Scheduled Caste and even out of three wards only ward No. 5 from which the appellant was elected was reserved for Scheduled Castes women and as President's post is reserved for being filled up by a member belonging to the category of Scheduled Castes women who has been elected on such a seat the respondent No. 1 who is elected as a member not on any seat reserved for Scheduled Castes women but on a seat reserved for General category of women from ward No. 11 is obviously out of the arena of contest for the post of Presidentship of Loharu Municipality."(Emphasis supplied). 13.As indicated earlier, we have followed the above ratio of the Supreme Court decision while deciding Writ Petition No. 2809 of 1997. It is not disputed before us that the petitioner is the only Scheduled Caste woman elected from the only ward which was reserved for Scheduled Caste women. In this view of the matter, it is unnecessary to direct the Collector to hold fresh election. Having regard to the scheme of reservation and the rotation settled by the Collector, the petitioner alone would be eligible to contest the election for the post of President from amongst the Scheduled Castes women councillors. This is clear from the ratio of the Supreme Court decision and the underlined position referred above in para 12. Hence, we set aside the election of respondent No. 1 and declare the petitioner to be elected as President of Indapur Municipal Council for the unexpired term. Rule made absolute accordingly with no order as to costs. 14.At this stage Shri Dhakephalkar prays for one week's time to hand over the charge to the petitioner. The same is granted. Accordingly, the first respondent is directed to hand over the charge to the petitioner on Monday the 21st July 1997. As stated by Shri Dhakephalkar, respondent No. 1 will not take any policy decision or incur any major financial commitments till 21st July, 1997. Petition allowed.