SC declines to recall order staying quota for OBCs in local body polls | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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SC declines to recall order staying quota for OBCs in local body polls

By, New Delhi
Jan 20, 2022 06:07 AM IST

In its order, the bench noted that it was for the respective state backward commissions to examine the data on OBCs as submitted by states and UTs, and then take a suitable view.

No state or Union territory can be permitted to hold local body elections with 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) without empirical data on the population and representation of OBCs, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday as it declined to recall its December 2021 order staying OBC quotas for Maharashtra local polls.

The order comes after the apex court suspended OBC quotas for local body polls in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh for want of adequate data last month. (HT File)
The order comes after the apex court suspended OBC quotas for local body polls in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh for want of adequate data last month. (HT File)

The order comes after the apex court suspended OBC quotas for local body polls in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh for want of adequate data last month, and the Odisha high court cited the top court order to stay panchayat polls in Odisha for the same reason.

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“We are not going to recall our orders. States can’t provide reservation for OBC if they have not complied with the constitution bench judgment of this court, which was reiterated by a three-judge bench in its judgment last year. All states and Union territories (UTs) will have to complete the exercise of gathering empirical data, which will then be examined by the dedicated state commissions,” said a bench, headed by justice AM Khanwilkar.

“There is no quarrel that the reservation has to be provided if the dispensation so provides, but this has to be in compliance with the judgment of the constitution bench and the three-judge bench. If the states have not acted after the 2010 constitution bench judgment, they will have to satisfy the triple test now. Until then, there cannot be any reservation for the OBC and election will have to be done on those seats as open category seats” emphasised the bench, also comprising justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar.

The 2010 constitution bench verdict laid down a triple test for reserving seats in local body polls: Setting up a dedicated commission to conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness with respect to local bodies, specifying the proportion of reservation in light of the commission’s proposals, and not exceeding the 50% quota cap as laid down by the top court in a landmark 1992 judgment.

A three-judge bench relied on this five-judge bench verdict in March 2021 while holding that the triple test is a precondition for reservation to OBCs in local bodies.

Wednesday’s order deals a blow to the efforts of several state governments that were looking to provide quotas to OBCs in local body elections, which currently only have seats set aside for scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs), apart from women.

State food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal said: “Until today, there was no way ahead except completing the triple test exercise. But today, the apex court allowed the state to submit the data to MSBCC and further allowed the commission to submit its interim report to the state government, which is a positive development.”

In its order, the bench noted that it was for the respective state backward commissions to examine the data on OBCs as submitted by states and UTs, and then take a suitable view. It directed that the state election commission (SEC) will have to notify all OBC seats as open category seats for future elections to local bodies if states and UTs fail to satisfy the triple conditions laid down by the top court.

“This observation must also govern the dispensation in all states which intend to hold elections by providing reservation for the OBCs. Without compliance with the triple test, state election commissions shall ensure that seats to future elections be notified as open category seats,” said the court.

It also turned down a request made by the Union government to allow states and UTs to defer the local body elections until they could gather data on OBCs and have it vetted by the commissions.

“We are not going to say ‘don’t hold elections’. We will not say until this exercise is complete, administrators will continue for an indefinite period. Where the term of the administrators have expired, we cannot allow them to continue indefinitely,” the bench told additional solicitor general KM Nataraj, who represented the Centre. Meanwhile, Chandrakant Bavkar, executive president, Jan OBC Morcha, said: “I don’t see it as a positive development and the way the state government is going ahead in this matter, I doubt that OBCs will get reservation in the upcoming local bodies’ elections

In December 2021, the Supreme Court relied on its 2010 and March 2021 orders to decide that local body elections in Maharashtra will be held without any reservation for OBCs as the state failed to collect empirical data on OBCs. It directed the stat election commission to issue a fresh notification, declaring 567 seats out of a total of 2,100 as general category seats instead.

Days later, the court also stayed the election process on seats reserved for OBCs in the municipal polls in Madhya Pradesh, asking the SEC to renotify the OBC seats as general category if the polls were to go on.

The Maharashtra government moved the Supreme Court earlier this month, seeking a recall of the December 2021 order. The state government pointed out that the elections to 34 out of 37 zilla parishads, 313 out of 351 panchayat samitis and 9,000 village panchayats were due by March this year. “ OBC candidates will not get representation in the local bodies in the state for the next five years,” said the state’s plea.

Similar applications were moved by the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government, urging the court to recall its December order in the Madhya Pradesh case. Those pleas have not yet been heard.

On Wednesday, senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for the Maharashtra government, urged the bench to recall its December order and instead allow the state to hold future elections on the basis of information and data already available with the states concerning the OBCs.

The bench, however, made it clear that the triple test was to be complied with by the state and that the Supreme Court could not examine the correctness or otherwise of the data that the state seeks to reply upon.

It then passed an order asking the state backward classes commission to vet the data being cited by the state government within two weeks and then make appropriate recommendations to the state government and the SEC.

“The data and information may be furnished before the dedicated commission to enable the latter examine it and submit interim recommendations, which can be acted upon in terms of the law. This obviously would not obviate the triple test which had to be completed by the state under the 2021 judgment before providing reservation of seats for OBC in local bodies,” added the bench in its order.

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