The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Allahabad High Court order directing the Uttar Pradesh government to conduct urban local body elections without reservation for OBCs.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government, and directed that a panel appointed by the state government would have to decide the issues related to the OBC quota for local . Municipal elections by March 31, 2023.
The top court 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 that the administrators would not be empowered to take major policy decisions.
take a look at the issue
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had ordered the UP government and the State Election Commission to conduct ULB elections by January 31 without reserving seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as the state did not comply. triple-test formula, The court also said that the seats reserved for OBCs for these elections should be declared as general category.
The Yogi Adityanath government appealed against the High Court order in the Supreme Court. After the order to complete the triple test formula, the government also a Backward Classes Commission,
The Lucknow bench of the high court, while quashing the December 5 draft notification, had ordered that the state government “immediately” notify the elections as the term of many municipalities would expire by January 31. The court had directed the State Election Commission to conduct the elections. The draft notification proposes to transfer OBC seats to the general category and hold elections by January 31.
What was the decision of the High Court on the UP draft notification?
The UP government had released the provisional list of mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 city councils and seats reserved for 545 city panchayats for the three-tier urban elections to be held in December.
It had sought comments and suggestions on the draft within seven days.
The draft notification designated four mayoral seats for OBC candidates in Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut and Prayagraj. Mayor posts in Aligarh and Mathura-Vrindavan were reserved for OBC women.
In addition, 54 seats out of 200 municipal council chairpersons were reserved for OBCs, including 18 for OBC women. Of the 545 Nagar Panchayat chairperson seats, 147 were reserved for OBC candidates, including 49 for OBC women.
What is triple test?
The High Court had struck down OBC reservation in urban local body elections on the ground that the Adityanath government failed to follow the “triple test formula” laid down by the Supreme Court.
The triple test is the three essential conditions for providing such reservation. In the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawli v. State of Maharashtra (2021), the Supreme Court imposed three conditions:
(1) Establishing a dedicated commission to conduct concurrent rigorous empirical research into the nature and implications of the backwardness of the population in terms of political participation.
(2) to specify the proportion of reservation to be provisioned locally based on the recommendations of the Commission to avoid over-generalization;
(3) In any case, such reservation shall not exceed 50% of the total seats reserved for SC/ST/OBC combined.
The Supreme Court in its judgment said that unless these conditions are fulfilled, the reservation cannot be notified.
“In a given local body, space for providing such reservation in favor of OBCs may be available at the time of issue of election schedule (notification). However, it can be notified only if the above pre-conditions are fulfilled… To put it differently, it will not be open to the respondents to justify reservation for OBCs, meeting the triple test mentioned above without doing,” the SC judgment said, according to a outlook Report good.
Why did Yogi form the OBC commission?
Soon after the Allahabad High Court quashed the UP government’s provisional list of reserved seats in ULB elections, the opposition reacted and accused the BJP of failing to protect the interests of “weaker sections”. “The rights of the weaker sections are being snatched away, – said Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati said the BJP is anti-reservation, while JD(U) leader KC Tyagi reportedly said, “Elections should not be held without OBC reservation.”
In response to the High Court order and criticism from the opposition, Chief Minister Adityanath had categorically stated that ULB elections would be held only after quota benefits were given to OBCs.
Adityanath appointed a five-member OBC commission, headed by retired high court judge Justice Ram Avtar Singh, to survey municipal bodies to determine how many seats should be reserved for OBCs in ULB elections. The members are all from OBC, by a report India said today
Why are OBCs important to the BJP?
Keeping the OBCs in good spirit is important for the BJP. Since 2014, OBCs have overwhelmingly supported the BJP, barring a few Yadavs and Jats. Providing quota for them in ULB elections is not only politically important, but also an image-building exercise for the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“OBCs are the largest vote bank in UP and with their support BJP came to power in UP in 2017 and 2022 elections and won maximum Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014 and 2019 general elections. After this order of the court (the one from the High Court), the opposition has got an opportunity to do bad propaganda against the BJP by calling it anti-reservation. If they succeed, it could cause major damage to the BJP at the national level ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party and the state government will surely come out with some strategy to control the situation,” a BJP leader had told The Indian Express.
In Uttar Pradesh, a social justice committee appointed in 2001 by then chief minister Rajnath Singh estimated that OBCs constituted 43.13% of the state’s population, the Indian Express reported. The Yadav community alone accounts for about 19% of the state’s OBC population, which supports the SP. The BJP has attempted to destroy the SP’s Yadav vote bank by sending leaders of the community to the Rajya Sabha and the State Legislative Council.
Kurmi, Kachhi-Kushwaha-Shakya-Maurya-Saini-Mali, Lodh, Jat (who are OBC in UP), Kevat (Nishad), Shepherd-Pal, Kahar-Kashyap and Bhar-Rajbhar are also OBC communities.
The BJP state president is a Jat leader, but the party’s OBC candidate lost to RLD’s OBC candidate from Khatauli assembly seat in Muzaffarnagar earlier this month. The report says that the BJP has been working for the past 30 years to establish a base among non-Yadav OBCs to counter the strong Yadav-Muslim alliance of the SP.
In the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP forged an alliance with the Apna Dal (SP) and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) to consolidate Kurmi and Rajbhar votes. When the SBSP allied with the SP in the 2022 elections, the BJP allied with the Nishad Party, which contested 10 seats and won six, while the Apna Dal (S) contested 17 and won six. Won 12 seats. The SP forged a rainbow alliance with the RLD and several smaller parties among various OBC caste groups in the 2022 elections, improving its prospects.
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