Maharashtra local body polls: SC directs 27 pc seats reserved for OBC be notified as general seats

The Supreme Court Wednesday directed the State Election Commission SEC of Maharashtra to notify 27 per cent seats in the local body which were reserved for the Other Backward Classes OBCs as general category so that the poll process can be taken forwardThe apex court had on December 6 stayed till further orders the local body election in Maharashtra on seats reserved for the OBCs and had made it clear that the poll process for the other seats would continueA bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar which was hearing an application filed by Maharashtra government seeking modification of the last week order directed the SEC to issue fresh notification for the 27 per cent seats within a weekldquoIn other words the SEC must immediately issue fresh notification for the 27 per cent seats reserved for OBC as general category and initiate election process for these seats along with the election process already on its way for the remaining 73 per cent of seats in the concerned local bodyrdquo the bench saidAlso Read SC junks Maha govt plea seeking direction to Centre to share raw caste Census dataThe bench said it is not possible to countenance the arguments that without complying with the triple test which is required to be followed before provisioning such reservation for OBC category the state authority or SEC can be permitted to notify the seats for OBC in any local bodiesThe apex court had passed the order last week while hearing two pleas including the one assailing the provisions insertedamended through an Ordinance permitting reservation for the category of backward class of citizens up to 27 percent uniformly throughout Maharashtra in the concerned local bodiesIn its order passed on Wednesday the bench said there is no reason to modify the December 6 order in that regardIt however said the hiatus cannot be continued for an indefinite periodldquoAs has been ordered in the case of hellip we would follow the same route by directing the state authority and the SEC to treat the notification issued for reservation for OBC as nonest in every local body in which election are already notified and to renotify those seats for general category so that election to those seats can also be taken forward as per law along with the election of remaining 73 per cent seats on which the process is already on its wayrdquo the bench saidIt said the SEC must declare the result of both the elections on the same day local body wiseThe top court said this direction would apply even to the byelections of the concerned local bodiesIt said the SECs counsel wanted clarification as to whether these directions would apply in this election or should govern future poll alsoldquoWe fail to understand this confusion in the mind of the State Election Commission The threejudge judgement makes it amply clear that it should be the regime applied to all future election and that needs no further clarificationrdquo it saidIt said any petition pending before the high court on the subject matter shall stands transferred to the apex court and the interim orders passed in those proceedings if any shall stand modified in terms of todays orderThe court while disposing of Maharashtras application said this arrangement is subject to outcome of the proceedings before itIt posted the matter for hearing on January 17During the hearing senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Maharashtra said the election on 73 per cent seats will still render inoperable some of those local bodies where the OBC must come by way of rotation He said Maharashtra has a huge number of OBCs and if the court is of the view that stay on election on 27 per cent seats should remain because of lack of data the bench may consider staying the entire election processldquoDont have partial election You have granted a partial stay I am saying let there be a complete stay let there be no election for six months We will fast track the commission which we have appointedrdquo he saidThe bench observed that there are two option ndash either to direct the SEC to notify the 27 per cent seats which was reserved for the OBC as general category seat or not to hold election on these seats for six months as suggested by the state and in the meantime the exercise of the commission and decision on that basis would comeldquoIt is 27 per cent of constituencies across the state It will be unrepresented That is not acceptablerdquo the bench observedRohatgi requested the bench to stay the entire election till March and list the matter in AprilWhile hearing the matter on December 6 the apex court had observed that a similar issue had come up earlier before it and a threejudge bench had delivered a judgement in which the court had noted the triple test to be followed before provisioning such reservation for the OBC categoryIt had noted that this was a reiteration of the exposition of the Constitution Bench on the issue of quantum of the reservation to be provided for OBCsIn March this year the apex court had said that reservation in favour of OBCs in local bodies in Maharashtra cannot exceed an aggregate of 50percent of the total seats reserved for Scheduled Castes the Scheduled Tribes and OBCs taken togetherIt had referred to the triple condition noted in the Constitution bench verdict of 2010 including setting up a dedicated commission to conduct a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies within the stateThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever