Staying the state government’s notification of the reservation list to the offices of president and vice-president of municipalities, the High Court on Friday said the list could be published only if 50 per cent of the reservation is for women.

Justice A S Bopanna passed the order on a petition filed by L Radha from Madhugiri in Tumkur district who won the election in the CMC seeking directions to the state government to reserve 50 per cent of the top posts in ULBs for women under Article 243 of the Constitution read with Section 42 of the KMC Act.

Justice Bopanna directed the state not to publish the reservation list unless 50 per cent of the posts were reserved for women. Petitioner Radha submitted that: “In view of the ensuing general elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the state government is proceeding in great haste to announce reservations to top posts in all the municipalities.”

The state government provides 33 per cent reservation for women, as against 50 per cent provided under Section 42 (2)(A)(c).

If the state government is allowed to do so, the right of women to contest and get elected to the said posts will be infringed to the extent of 1/6th of the total number of municipalities. Women in particular are likely to suffer if they are not provided with such reservation, the submission said.