State mulls way ahead after stay on OBC local poll quota

THE APEX COURT SAID THAT THE GOVT SHOULD HAVE COLLECTED EMPIRICAL DATA BEFORE GIVING RESERVATION

MUMBAI: A day after Supreme Court stayed 27% reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) in local body polls, legal opinion is divided on whether the state would receive relief if it moves the Supreme Court to review its decision.

Chief secretary Debashish Chakrabarty held a review meeting on Tuesday to examine the options available to the government. The apex court on Monday said that the government should have collected empirical data before providing reservation in keeping with its order from March 4.

“The legal opinion was against the Ordinance as it goes against the spirit of SC order in K Krishnamurthy case in March. The Ordinance has been stayed for the state government’s failure to collate the empirical data which was like pre-condition to reservation. Unfortunately the state government could not progress even after issuing the order of the appointment of MSBCC on June 29. Even if the state government requested for the relief from the stay, the top court is unlikely to concede,” an official from law and judiciary department who did not wish to be named, said.

State minister and OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal however said that the state is looking to move the court for revising its order.

“The three tests laid down by the court have been fulfilled and the Maharashtra

State Backward Class Commission has been appointed and will start collecting the empirical data soon. We are consulting legal experts and will move court for revision [of the order],” he said.

“The local body elections are being held in other states based on the Ordinance issued on the similar lines we did. The Ordinances issued by them are not stayed. We are also going to request the apex court to allow us to hold the polls as per the schedule, subject to the submission of the OBC certificate later. We expect relief in the next hearing on December 13; 54% of the population of the state cannot be deprived of political reservation for technical reasons,” Bhujbal said.

The triple tests for providing reservation are: establish a Commission to conduct rigorous empirical inquiry; specify proportion of reservation in light of the Commission’s recommendations; ensure reservation does not exceed 50% of the total seats with SCS/STS/OBC quotas.

An official said the state is expected to argue that it has the interim data collected by the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics and also by the National Sample Survey Office.