SC stays Maharashtra govt's ordinance for 27% OBC reservation in local body polls

In a setback to the Maharashtra government, the Supreme Court on Monday, stayed the OBC ordinance passed by the MVA govt allowing a 27% reservation for the Other Backward Communities (OBC) for local body elections. The bench ruled that the election can proceed for other reserved seats and that the State Election Commission shall not notify any OBC reserved seats for any upcoming elections. The SC bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar were hearing writ petitions challenging the ordinance.

SC stays Maharashtra govt's OBC ordinance

The bench noted that in March, it had struck down the state government's move to introduce 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in Zilla Parishad and panchayat Samitis, citing the 50% threshold rule for reservation. Reiterating the judgment, the SC bench stated that the triple test had to be followed for providing OBC reservation, i.e -  set up a Commission to conduct an empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, specify the proportion of reservation to be provisioned as per the Commission's reservation and reservation shall not exceed an aggregate of 50 percent of the total seats reserved for SC/STs

"To overcome the decision of this Court, the impugned Ordinance has been issued by the State Government and in compliance thereof, the State Election Commission has already notified the election programme," noted the bench. It added, "The State Election Commission shall desist from notifying reserved seats for OBC category even in case of future elections to any local bodies until further orders". The bench rebuked the govt for not waiting for the data to be submitted by the Commission and succumbing to  'political compulsions'.

Maharashtra Cabinet approves ordinance

After the SC struck down its 27 percent OBC reservation, the state government moved the apex court seeking socio-economic caste census data from the Centre to facilitate the OBC reservation. However, it decided to explore the ordinance route after the SEC declared by-elections in 6 Zilla Parishads on October 5. As per the ordinance approved by the governor,  the reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities won't be affected and the OBC quota will not breach the 50 percent ceiling for the rural local body polls.

This setback follows after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that neither the Gaikwad Commission nor the High Court made out any grounds for exceeding the ceiling of 50% reservation for Marathas. Moreover, the apex court observed that there was no question of revisiting the verdict in the 1992 Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case which had capped the total reservation at 50%. Thus, it struck down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018 to the extent that Marathas cannot be held as "Socially and Educationally Backward Class" and they are not entitled to reservation.