Supreme Court Allows OBC Quota In Madhya Pradesh Local Body Elections; Modifies Earlier Order

Mehal Jain

18 May 2022 1:11 PM IST

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Supreme Court Allows OBC Quota In Madhya Pradesh Local Body Elections; Modifies Earlier Order

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the implementation of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the local body elections in Madhya Pradesh.The Court modified its earlier order passed on May 10 which had directed the State Election Commission to notify the elections without OBC quota, saying that the triple test requirement for local body reservation was not completed.Later,...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the implementation of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the local body elections in Madhya Pradesh.

The Court modified its earlier order passed on May 10 which had directed the State Election Commission to notify the elections without OBC quota, saying that the triple test requirement for local body reservation was not completed.

Later, an application was moved seeking to modify the order stating that the backward classes commission has prepared a second report revising its earlier report based on the observations of the Court. Stating that the revised report satisfies the triple-test requirement, permission was sought to implement the OBC quota.

Noting that the delimitation exercise in the state of Madhya Pradesh had already been completed and so notified before 10th of May 2022, and that the report of the backward classes commission was further revised in the light of the observations made by the court and the second report has been submitted by the commission incorporating all the requisite issues, also giving break up of reservation to be provided local body wise, the Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted the OBC reservation in the impending local elections in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

The bench headed by Justice A. M. Khanwilkar passed the following order-

"Heard counsel for the parties including the counsel for the intervenors. This application is for modification of directions given in order dated 10 May 2022 on the assertion that certain crucial facts including the subsequent events being subsequent events before the date of order were not brought to the notice of this court. It is stated that the delimitation exercise in the state of Madhya Pradesh had already been completed and so notified before 10th of May 2022. In other words, it was not an ongoing exercise as such. Further, the report of the dedicated commission was further revised in the light of the observations made by this court and the second report has been submitted by the commission incorporating all the requisite issues, also giving break up of reservation to be provided local body wise. This report has been submitted on 12 May 2022. According to the applicants, this comprehensive report is reckoning all the factors for complying with the triple test in terms of the decision of this court.

To reassure ourselves, we have gone through the two reports submitted by the dedicated commission concerning the determination of reservation to be provided for other backward classes in local bodies in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The second report focuses on the local body wise reservation for the other backward classes by keeping in mind the maximum reservation limit of 50% enunciated by this court. We may not be understood to have expressed any final opinion either way on the validity or correctness of this report and if some challenge is set up against this report, that may have to be considered on its own merits in accordance with law.

For the time being, we permit the Madhya Pradesh State election commission to notify the programme for the respective local bodies keeping in mind the delimitation notification already issued as on date .i.e. till today and the report submitted by the dedicated commission referred to above. The state election commission shall ensure that the election programme is issued for local bodies where the election is already overdue without any loss of time keeping in mind the feasibility of conducting elections and as observed in the case of state of Maharashtra yesterday, it would be open to the State election commission to later on modulate the schedule as and when occasion arises. We permit the state of Madhya Pradesh to notify the reservation pattern local body wise to be adhered to by the state election commission within one week. The State election commission shall notify the election programme in respect of the concerned local Bodies thereafter within one week."

The Supreme Court had on May 10 passed an interim order directing that the MP State Election Commission must notify the programme for elections to the over 20,000 local bodies within two weeks as per existing wards, without putting it off for the completion of the 'triple test' exercise to provide for OBC reservations and for carrying out the further delimitation procedure.

The bench headed by Justice A. M. Khanwilkar ruled that the constitutional mandate that new members must be elected to all bodies when the 5 year tenure ends and that the incumbents cannot continue for more than six months beyond their tenure is inviolable; that the reality in MP where over 20,000 local bodies are functioning beyond tenure cannot be countenanced; that the process of further delimitation cannot be a legitimate ground to disrupt the principle of for the people, of the people, by the people.

The bench even added that political parties claiming to be in favour of the OBC may consider nominating OBC candidates to the general category seats.

Last week, while hearing SG Tushar Mehta for the state, Justice Khanwilkar had expressed- "23,000 local bodies are without elected representatives functioning since how many years? This is the kind of governance! Shocking state of affairs! It is nothing but broken down of rule of law! In that case yesterday (regarding local body elections in Maharashtra), we did not record in the order, but in your case we will record. Look at the consequences of what you are up to. Everybody is governed by the constitutional mandate. What about the constitution? It is because of wrong priorities and political compulsions that the situation is this. If everything goes in order, there will be no issue! These are all political compulsions, take any state, that is the universal rule, everybody wants to remain in authority."

Continuing, the judge had observed, "Each day's delay is problematic...Nothing is going to happen- The heavens will not fall if there is no provision for OBC for this election. The constitutional mandate has to be complied with. The triple test has not come right now. It is there from 2010. There was enough time for all the authorities to act upon it. The judgment was pronounced recently in 2021 also and it was mentioned very clearly that for future elections this will be the norm. Despite that, nothing has moved forward. Delimitation is a continuous process, it can continue. The day on which the elections became due, on that day what was that delimitation? We will ask the State election commission to proceed notionally on that basis."

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Supreme Court Allows OBC Quota In Madhya Pradesh Local Body Elections; Modifies Earlier Order

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