Maharashtra Govt Seeks Recall Of Supreme Court Order To Notify OBC Seats As General For Local Body Polls

The State of Maharashtra has approached Supreme Court seeking recall of order dated December 15, 2021 by which the Top Court had directed the State Government and State Election Commission to notify the 27% seats reserved for the Other Backward Classes in Maharashtra local body elections as general seats and take forward the election process.

When the matter was called for hearing, Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphade for the State of Maharashtra submitted before the bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar that the State had filed an application seeking recall of Top Court's order dated December 15, 2021.

He further requested the bench to take up the matter on Wednesday i.e. January 19, 2022 or on Friday i.e. January 21, 2022.

"We have filed an IA seeking a recall order dated December 15. Can it be taken up on Friday or Wednesday? Whenever it's convenient. The Application has been filed today, I'm instructed to say," submitted Senior Counsel.

Agreeing to Senior Counsel's request, the bench in the order said, "Counsel for State on instruction submits that fresh IA has been filed for recall of order dated Dec 15, 2021. Post these IA's along with the connected matter on Wednesday."

Order Dated December 15, 2021

A bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar on December 15, 2021 while hearing applications by State of Maharashtra and some intervenors seeking modification of the December 6 stay order, had directed the State Election Commission to re notify the 27% OBC constituencies as general seats and resume the election process for those seats along with other states.

In the application, the State of Maharashtra had proposed for staying the entire election and had sought for granting the State Commission 3 months time to complete the data collection process required for OBC reservation.

Rejecting to the reliefs sought, the Court had further directed for declaring the results for both categories (73% general seats and 27% seats re-notified as general seats) on the same day only. Directions were also issued to the State Election Commission to issue the fresh notification within one day.

The bench on December 6, 2021 had stayed the 27% quota and allowed election process in the remaining seats observing that the Ordinance brought by the Maharashtra Government to provide the 27% OBC reservation was an attempt to overreach the judgment of the Supreme Court in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v State Of Maharashtra and Ors LL 2021 SC 13, which had quashed the 27% OBC quota as it was introduced without following the "triple tests'' laid down in Krishna Murthy (Dr.) & Ors. vs. Union of India & Anr., (2010) 7 SCC 202.

It is pertinent to mention that the Central Government had also approached the Top Court by filing an application seeking recall or modification of Top Court's order dated December 17 by which it had stayed the election process in the seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the local body elections in Madhya Pradesh.

Case Title: Rahul Ramesh Wagh Versus The State Of Maharashtra And Ors| SLP(C) No. 19756/2021

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