SC stays Allahabad HC order asking UP government to hold urban local body polls without OBC quota
New Delhi, January 4
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Allahabad High Court’s verdict directing the Uttar Pradesh Government to hold urban local body elections in the state without reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), saying it wouldn’t be correct to conduct these polls without OBC quota.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud also directed a panel appointed by the state government to decide the OBC quota related issues for the local body polls by March 31, 2023.
The Bench – which also included Justice PS Narasimha – allowed the state government to appoint administrators to run the affairs of the local bodies after the expiry of the tenure of the elected representatives. However, it said the administrators can’t take any major policy decisions.
After the High Court’s verdict, the State Government had appointed a five-member commission for working out modalities for OBC reservation in urban local body polls.
The order came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the UP Government, said the commission may be directed to complete its exercise in three months.
The Uttar Pradesh government had on December 29 moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court‘s order to hold the urban body polls in the state without reservation for the OBCs.
In its petition against the December 27 Allahabad High Court order, the UP Government said the high court could not have quashed the December 5 draft notification which provided for reservation of seats for OBCs in the urban body polls, in addition to quota for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.
The OBCs are a constitutionally protected section and the high court erred in quashing the draft notification, the state government contended.
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had quashed the Uttar Pradesh government’s December 5 draft notification on urban local body elections and ordered the state government to notify the polls “immediately” as the term of several municipalities would end by January 31.
The HC order had come on PILs challenging the preparation of the OBC reservation draft without following the triple test formula prescribed by the Supreme Court. The HC had earlier stayed the urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh for a fortnight.
The petitioners had contended that the state government must follow the top court’s formula and constitute a dedicated commission to study the political backwardness of OBCs before fixing the reservation.
The state government had earlier issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils and 545 nagar panchayats for the three-tier urban local body elections and sought suggestions/objections within seven days.
According to the December 5 draft, four mayoral seats — Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut and Prayagraj — were reserved for OBC candidates.
The mayor’s posts in Aligarh and Mathura-Vrindavan were reserved for OBC women and 54 chairpersons’ seats in the 200 municipal councils were reserved for OBCs, including 18 for OBC women. For the chairpersons’ seats in 545 nagar panchayats, 147 seats were reserved for OBC candidates, including 49 for OBC women.
