SC stays OBC reservation in Maha local body polls
THE DECISION OF THE COURT WOULD AFFECT 567 SEATS OUT OF A TOTAL OF 2100 SEATS FOR WHICH POLLS WERE ANNOUNCED BY THE SEC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the local body polls in Maharashtra to be held without reservation for other backward classes (OBC) as it faulted the state for introducing 27% reservation for OBCs in all zila parishads and panchayat samitis through an ordinance two months ago without collecting empirical data on OBCs across every municipal body seat.
The decision of the Court would affect 567 seats out of a total of 2100 seats for which polls were announced by the state election commission (SEC) on November 24. As per the election schedule, Tuesday was the last date for filing of nominations.
A bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar said, “The election for the concerned local bodies in respect of reserved seats for backward classes shall remain stayed till further orders.”
The top court further directed that “SEC shall not notify reserved seats for OBCs for any election, either midterm or any other general election, until further orders.” The order came on separate petitions by a former legislator in the state Assembly Kisanrao Kundalikrao Gawali and a social worker Rahul Ramesh Wagh.
The requirement of having empirical data as a precondition for providing OBC reservation in Maharashtra’s local body elections was laid down by the Supreme Court on March 4. This judgment directed state government to set up a dedicated commission to examine backwardness and extent of OBC population in each municipal council.
On June 29, a commission was constituted for this purpose but since this exercise was time-consuming, the state issued an ordinance by amending provisions in two legislations - Maharashtra village panchayat act and the Maharashtra zilla parishad and panchayat samitis act, 1961.
Taking exception to the haste shown by the state to introduce the ordinance, the bench remarked, “Your political compulsions cannot be the basis to undo our judgment….You should have waited for the data to be compiled by the commission.”
Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade appearing for the state said that collection of data is an exhaustive exercise and due to Covid, this was expected to take a long time.
Meanwhile, he informed the Court that the state had filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding the census data on OBCs collected by the Commissioner of Census, Government of India.
This petition is still pending consideration and is expected to be heard on December 13. The Court ordered the present petitions to be heard along with that matter on Monday.
The state argued against a
stay stating that the result will be that OBCs will go unrepresented.
The bench said, “You have created this problem. Our judgment was very clear asking you to get data and provide reservation for municipal council wise. You have overturned our judgment with this process.”
For the petitioners, senior advocate Vikas Singh argued that only by collecting data, any reservation for OBCs can be justified.
“What this Court set aside has been re-introduced by the ordinance, except with a rider of 50% on total reservation,” Singh said. He said that if this ordinance is stayed, the 567 seats will be filled up by general category candidates.
The two petitions filed through advocate Chandra Prakash and Hrikesh Chitley said, “The foremost requirement (for providing OBC reservation) is to collate adequate materials or documents that could help in identification of OBCs for the purpose of reservation by conducting a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness in the local bodies concerned through an independent dedicated Commission.”
The petitioners had earlier approached the Bombay high court challenging the ordinance.
On November 18, HC issued notice on their petitions but did not grant any stay. Later, when the SEC notification announcing the election process was out, the petitioners approached the apex court seeking urgent stay of the ordinance and its effect in the present local body polls.
The Court also pulled up SEC for announcing the election schedule.
The bench said, “When the matter was before the court, you (SEC) could have taken permission.” By two notifications of November 24 and November 26, the schedule for elections to 15 panchayat samitis in the districts of Bhandara and Gondia and 105 nagar panchayats throughout the state was declared.
REQUIREMENT OF HAVING EMPIRICAL DATA AS A PRECONDITION FOR PROVIDING OBC QUOTA IN THE POLLS WAS LAID DOWN BY THE SC ON MARCH 4