SC to hear Maharashtra, MP's OBC poll quota plea on Jan 17

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 3

The Supreme Court will hear on January 17 the cases relating to reservation of seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

The top court had directed the state election commissions of both states to re-notify the seats reserved for OBCs in the local bodies under the general category.

The Centre has urged the top court to recall its December 17, 2020, order directing the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission to stay the poll process on the seats reserved for OBCs in the local bodies in the state and re-notify all such seats under the general category.

It wanted the top court to order deferment of the local body elections for four months with a mandate to the state government to come out with the report of the commission and directing the SEC to hold the elections accordingly.

“This will come up on January 17,” a Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. Mehta submitted that the Union Government has issued directions regarding compliance of verdicts delivered by a Constitution Bench as well as a three-judge Bench of the top court.

“We have done that…We have also moved an application seeking some relief in the matter,” the Solicitor General told the Bench which said it would be taken up on January 17.

Referring to a 2010 Constitution Bench verdict, the SC had on December 17 talked of three conditions, including the setting up of a dedicated commission to conduct a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua the local bodies in the states, needed to be followed before making reservation for OBCs.

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