Allahabad High Court rejects UP government’s notification on OBC reservation, CM Yogi can go to Supreme Court

Allahabad High Court On Tuesday, the UP government was ordered to hold elections without reservation for OBCs.

The Lucknow bench of the high court ordered that the state government should “immediately” inform elections as the term of several municipalities would expire by January 31.

After this, the Chief Minister of the state Yogi Adityanath has said that he will approach the Supreme Court in this matter. Hindustan Times Where is it?

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has set aside the Uttar Pradesh government’s draft notification on civic body elections and ordered elections to be held without reservation for OBCs.

The Lucknow subdivision of Allahabad High Court has rejected the state government’s contention that it had conducted a rapid survey, which they claimed was as good as the triple test formula.

The triple test formula is a method of conducting in-depth research and study and requires the authority to appoint a commission, collect quantitative data on the community and allot reservation to them in local bodies. This needs to be done in such a way that the total reservation on each seat does not exceed 50%.

‘Government will take a final decision on this’ urban local body Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya tweeted, “Elections after consulting legal experts on all aspects of the court order.” He also said that under no circumstances will the state government compromise on the issue of OBC rights.

It may be noted that four mayoral seats, including Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut and Prayagraj, are reserved for OBC candidates. These are mentioned in the December 5 draft along with the fact that Aligarh and Mathura-Vrindavan are reserved for OBC women.

Fifty-four chairpersons’ seats in 200 municipal councils are also reserved for OBCs. Of these, 18 seats are reserved for OBC women. Of the 545 Nagar Panchayats, 147 seats for chairpersons were reserved for OBC candidates, of which 49 were for OBC women.

CM Adityanath said that the state government will set up a commission to decide on the issue of OBC reservation in urban local body elections.

Hindustan Times The report said that Apna Dal (S), an OBC party that shares power with the BJP in the state, also said that in their view it was not appropriate to hold the civic polls without OBC reservation. The party tweeted its stand with its verified handle, “We will study the High Court order in detail before taking a final decision, but will also approach the Supreme Court on this issue if needed.”

The top court’s plan to provide reservation to OBCs without the mandatory survey drew criticism from the opposition Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj chief Mayawati, and a petition was filed in the High Court objecting to the government’s move. The petitioners had argued that the state government should follow the Supreme Court formula and set up a commission to study the political backwardness of OBCs before deciding on reservations.

Following the High Court order, opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party, have now cornered the ruling government alleging that it hatched a conspiracy to end the OBC quota. SP President Akhilesh Yadav said, ‘We will not tolerate this injustice.’