Constitution Section 243T — Reservation of seats
Part IXA — THE MUNICIPALITIES
Constitutional
Summary
In every Municipality, a certain number of seats must be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The number of reserved seats should be roughly proportional to the share of these communities in the total population of the municipal area, and these seats may be rotated among different wards. At least one-third of these reserved seats must be given to women from those communities. Additionally, at least one-third of all directly elected seats in every Municipality must be reserved for women overall, including the seats already reserved for women from Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and these seats may also be rotated. The offices of Chairpersons in Municipalities must be reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women, as decided by the state legislature. The reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and the reservation of Chairperson offices (except for women), will end after the period mentioned in article 334. State legislatures are free to make additional provisions for reserving seats or Chairperson offices in Municipalities for backward classes of citizens.
Official Text
(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 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 Castes 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 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 to different constituencies in a Municipality.
(4) The offices of Chairpersons in the Municipalities shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the 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 of Chairpersons in the Municipalities in favour of backward class of citizens.