Explained: Why Supreme Court rejected Maharashtra panel report on OBC quota in local body polls

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Sources in the MVA government said the way forward includes exploring all legal options, including making a law. “The cabinet has asked the secretaries of the Rural Development Department, Urban Development Department and Law and Judiciary to study the SC order. They have also been asked to see what the Madhya Pradesh government has done when their OBC quota was stayed by apex court recently,” a source said.

What the Supreme Court said

During the hearing on Thursday, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar said, “The report itself mentions that the same is being prepared in absence of empirical study and research by the commission. Having failed to do so, the Commission should not have filed the interim report.”

“As a result, it is not possible to permit any authority, much less the State Election Commission, to act upon the recommendations made in the said report. For the time being, we do not intend to dilate on the correctness of each of the observations made by the commission in the interim report. We, however, direct all concerned not to act upon the interim report as submitted,” the court added.

The bench also directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to notify the election process in local bodies without further delay and to comply with its earlier order which directed that the OBC seats be treated as general category.

The interim report

In January, the Supreme Court had directed the Maharashtra government to submit data on OBCs to the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes (MSCBC) to examine its correctness and make recommendations on their representation in elections to the local bodies. The apex court also directed MSCBC to submit the interim report to the authorities within two weeks of receiving information from the state government.

Subsequently, the government handed over the data to the MSCBC and requested it to give an interim report at the earliest. The MSCBC, in its 35-page report submitted in February, had recommended up to 27 per cent reservation for OBCs.

Why did SC read down OBC quota in local bodies?

In its March 4 order last year, the Supreme Court, while reading down the OBC reservation in local bodies, asked the state government to comply with three conditions — setting up a dedicated commission for collecting empirical data on the OBC population, specifying the proportion of reservation, and ensuring that the cumulative share of reserved seats doesn’t breach 50 per cent of total seats.

Following the SC order, the government appointed a dedicated commission for empirical data of OBCs and promulgated ordinance in September. A bill was subsequently passed in the winter session of the state legislature for 27 per cent OBCs reservation in local bodies without exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling limit of the reservation. While the government fulfilled the two tests, the exercise of carrying out the empirical data to provide reservation in proportion to population is yet to be completed.

Will the elections to local bodies be held on time?

The term of 10 municipal corporations including Mumbai and 25 Zila Parishads will end this month. Due to the pandemic and the MVA government’s decision to increase the number of seats based on population, the exercise of redrawing all the ward boundaries in these local bodies is being undertaken by the SEC.

Last month, the SEC recommended the MVA government should appoint administrators in the local bodies once the term ends.

Sources in the SEC said they will study the top court order. “We will study it and then decide on a further course of action. We will now only go by the SC order,” an official said.

Another official said the SEC was preparing the plan to hold the elections to the municipal corporations, including for Mumbai, and Zila Parishads by May-end. “We will soon complete the process of delimitation of the ward boundaries for municipal corporations. The delimitation of ward boundaries of Zila Parishad is going on and will be completed soon. We plan to hold the elections by end of May. But we will wait for SC order and then will decide further course of action,” the official said.

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