A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. file | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Supreme Court stayed an order of the Allahabad High Court Immediately notifying local body elections in Uttar Pradesh in general/open category without reserving seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) is itself an aberration Decision of 10 May 2022 Regarding local body elections in Madhya Pradesh.
The Allahabad High Court had on December 27 followed the law laid down by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court. Suresh Mahajan Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh In May.
In the Suresh Mahajan judgment, a three-judge bench headed by Justice (now retired) AM Khanwilkar held that unless the triple test/conditions are met, no reservation can be granted for backward classes. If such an exercise cannot be completed before the release of the election schedule, the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes should be notified for the general category except for those reserved for them. Political parties “who claim to be protagonists of OBC participation in the governance of local bodies” may field backward class candidates in various constituencies, even in general category seats. The May judgment had made it clear that its directions would apply to all states and union territories, and were not limited to holding local body elections in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in the earlier case.
The triple test mandates a dedicated commission to collect contemporary empirical data on politically backward citizens and recommend reservation of seats for them in local bodies.
constitutional mandate
Justice Khanwilkar in his judgment had highlighted the constitutional mandate to hold fresh elections to the local bodies every five years.
“This constitutional mandate is inviolable. Neither the State Election Commission nor the State Government or the State Legislature for that matter, including this Court in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, can make arrangements to the contrary,” the May judgment had underlined.
The judgment had directed the Madhya Pradesh Election Commission to release the election schedule by directing the seats notified for general category, excluding the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The court later allowed the implementation of OBC reservation in civic elections in Madhya Pradesh, but only after the dedicated commission submitted a revised report with local body-wise break-up of OBC seats, following the triple test conditions .
The Allahabad High Court had implemented its May 10 judgment in the case of Uttar Pradesh, directing it to issue notification of election schedule without OBC reservation. The high court had observed that the Uttar Pradesh government neither had a dedicated commission nor complied with the conditions of the triple test despite the fact that the terms of several local bodies were expiring by January 31, 2023. In fact, the State Govt. had notified. On December 28, a day after the High Court’s decision, the Uttar Pradesh State Local Bodies Dedicated Backward Classes Commission was formed.
However, on January 4, a two-judge bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud stayed the High Court’s direction to notify elections immediately, while recording an assurance from Uttar Pradesh that the commission would “expeditiously” by March 31. “shall ascertain the proportion of the population of Backward Classes citizens to the total population, local body-wise”.
“The High Court’s direction, which mandates elections to local bodies in Uttar Pradesh without reservation for backward classes of citizens, would result in violation of constitutional and statutory requirements of reservation for OBCs. Democratization of municipalities and the duty to provide representation under Article 243T are not competing values. The Chief Justice’s division bench said on January 4, “Prima facie, the High Court is not correct in giving priority to one over the other and directing the conduct of elections without provision for representation of backward classes.”