Provided that no person shall be eligible to be elected under this Act as a member of more than one panchayat.

Reservation of seats Reservation of seats. –

1. (1) Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes in every panchayat 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 filed by direct election in that panchayat as the population of the Scheduled Castes in that panchayat area bears to the total population of that area. The number of such reserved seats shall be determined by the Government by order published in the Official Gazette.
2. (2) One-third of the total number of seats reserved under sub-section (1) shall be reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes.
3. (3) One-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every panchayat shall be reserved for women.
4. (4) The offices of chairpersons in the panchayats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and women: Provided that the number of offices of chairpersons reserved for the Scheduled Castes in the panchayats at each level shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of such offices in the panchayats at each level as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the Union territory bears to the total population of the Union territory, the number of such reserved offices being determined by the Government by notification published in the Official Gazette: Provided further that one-third of the total number of offices of chairpersons in the panchayats at each level shall be reserved for women: Provided also that while determining the reserved seats for women under sub-sections (2),
5. (3) and (4), fraction, if any, shall be counted as one.
6. (5) The allotment of reserved seats under sub-sections (1),
7. (2) and (3) or the allotment of reserved offices of chairpersons under sub-section (4) shall be made by the Election Commission, once in five years, by rotation to different constituencies, in a panchayat or to offices of chairpersons of different panchayats in the Union territory. Such allotment shall be made in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed and in such manner that a constituency in a panchayat or an office of chairperson of a panchayat is reserved again only after exhausting such reservation in respect of every other constituency or office of chairperson, as the case may be].
8. (6) The reservation of seats under sub-sections (1) and (2) and the reservation of offices of chairpersons (other than the reservation for women) under sub-section (4) in favour of Scheduled Castes shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the period specific in article 334 of the Constitution.
9. (7) Nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to prevent the members of the Scheduled Castes and women from standing for election to the non-reserved seats and the non-reserved office of chairpersons in the panchayats.
10. (8) The Government may prescribe for reservation of seats in any panchayat at any level in favour of backward class of citizens: