Section 12. Reservation of offices of Chairperson.

(1) The Government may, by general or special order reserve such number of offices of Chairperson, for persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes in the Municipal Committee/Municipal Council as the case may be not exceeding the proportion to the total number of offices to be filled by direct election in the municipalities as urban population of the persons belonging to these classes in the 1[Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir] bears to the total population and may further reserve one-third of the total seats reserved under this sub-section for women belonging to these classes. (2) The offices of Chairperson reserved under sub-section (1), shall be allotted by rotation to different municipalities in the 1[Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir] in such a manner as may be prescribed. Explanation.––For the removal of doubts it is hereby declared that for the purpose of this section the expression “urban population” shall mean the population of municipal areas of the 1[Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir], except that of the municipal area declared to be a municipal area for the purposes of the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Corporation Act, 2000.