After Years Of Delay, Supreme Court Orders Maharashtra To Notify Local Body Elections Within Four Weeks With No OBC Reservation

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (6 May) directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) to notify local body elections within four weeks, reported the Indian Express.

Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh stated that the OBC reservation would remain as it was before the 2022 Banthia Commission report. The court also set a four-month deadline for the SEC to conclude the elections, with the option to request more time if necessary.

The bench said that the outcome of the local body elections will depend on the results of pending petitions in the Supreme Court. 

In 2022, the court had directed the SEC and the Maharashtra government to maintain the status quo regarding elections for 367 local bodies, where the poll process had already begun, due to issues concerning OBC reservation.

The court had quashed the SEC's notification to provide 27 per cent quotas for OBCs in 2021, ruling that such reservations would only be allowed once the government met the "triple test" outlined in a 2010 ruling, which includes setting up a dedicated commission to assess OBC backwardness and ensure that total reservations do not exceed 50 per cent. 

On 28 July 2022, the top court warned the state election commission of contempt action if it proceeded to re-notify the election process for these local bodies.

92 municipal councils and four nagar panchayats were among the 367 local bodies where the election process had already begun when the status quo order was issued. The court stated that the reservation cannot be applied to these 367 local bodies.