Maharashtra Governor refuses to sign OBC reservation ordinance; Fadnavis blames MVA govt

The feud between the Maharashtra government and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari escalated after the latter refused to sign the OBC reservation ordinance on Wednesday. In its verdict dated March 4, the Supreme Court struck down 27% OBC reservation in Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis in Maharashtra. Maintaining that the reservation quota for the community can be fixed only after collecting empirical data, the SC permitted the State Election Commission to conduct the local body elections without this quota. This led to massive protests from many OBC outfits and politicians across party lines.

Subsequently, 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 finalised by the Cabinet, the reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities won't be affected and the OBC quota will not breach the 50% ceiling for the rural local body polls. However, Koshyari sent back the ordinance saying that the MVA government should inform the Supreme Court about this move. 

Defending the Governor, BJP leader and former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis remarked, "When the proposal for the OBC reservation ordinance was tabled before the state government's Law and Judiciary department. It stated that such an ordinance cannot be promulgated as this matter is pending before the Supreme Court. An ordinance can be promulgated after taking the Advocate General's opinion elaborating on how the concerns raised by the Law and Judiciary department are wrong. Otherwise, the court will give a stay on this ordinance within 5 minutes."

MVA government firm on the ordinance

On Wednesday, the Maharashtra Cabinet decided to resend the ordinance to the Governor stressing that the state government will inform the top court when it is promulgated. In another development, the Cabinet also cleared the proposal of reserving 27% of the seats for OBCs in the urban local bodies such as Municipal Corporations and Municipal Councils. This assumes significance as over 15 Municipal Corporations including that of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane will go to the polls in the next year which is perceived as a litmus test for the Uddhav Thackeray-led government.