Supreme Court rejects plea to rotate reserved UP seats

The Supreme Court of India on November 4 dismissed Jagdish Singh’s petition seeking rotation of Uttar Pradesh Assembly constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, saying the issue was for lawmakers to consider. The bench said Singh could take the matter to elected representatives to seek legislative change. Singh, an elector from Kadipur in Sultanpur district, challenged the absence of a rotation mechanism for reserved Assembly seats. The constituency has been reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates for decades. His petition argued that prolonged reservation limited electoral choice and that a few families had benefited from the arrangement. Those assertions were submissions by the petitioner, not findings by the court. Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana heard the case. The bench said Articles 330 and 332 of the Constitution provide for the proportion of seats reserved in Parliament and state assemblies, but do not require individual constituencies to rotate. It said the choice of which constituencies are reserved, and whether rotation should be introduced, were matters for the legislature and relevant constitutional...