सं Samvidhan

The Constitution of India

Article 243T

Reservation of seats

(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.

Why this exists

Added by the 74th Constitutional Amendment in 1992, this Article aimed to make urban local self-government genuinely representative. Just as Article 243D did for rural panchayats, 243T ensures that historically marginalized groups—SCs, STs, and women—have guaranteed seats in city and town governance, preventing their exclusion from local decision-making that directly affects daily civic life like sanitation, roads, and water supply.

How courts read it

Courts have generally upheld the mandatory nature of these reservations, treating them as essential to the constitutional scheme of local self-governance under Part IXA. Judicial decisions have clarified that reservation must be based on proper population data (often requiring updated caste/tribe census figures for the specific municipal area) and that rotation of reserved seats must not be manipulated to defeat the purpose of periodic access to representation for different constituencies.

Common misconceptions
  • Myth: Women's reservation in municipalities will end after a fixed number of years, just like SC/ST reservation.
    Fact: Clause (5) explicitly says only the SC/ST seat and Chairperson reservations end with the Article 334 timeline; reservation for women continues indefinitely.
  • Myth: States cannot add reservations beyond SC, ST, and women.
    Fact: Clause (6) explicitly allows states to add reservations for backward classes as well, on top of the constitutionally mandated ones.
Article 243T — Reservation of seats · Samvidhan