New Delhi, January 2
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday agreed to hear on January 4 the Uttar Pradesh Government’s petition challenging an Allahabad High Court order asking it to conduct urban local body polls without reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
The petition was mentioned before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for urgent listing. The Bench assured Mehta that it would be taken up on Wednesday.
The Uttar Pradesh Government had on December 29 moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court’s order to hold the urban body polls in the state without reservation for the OBCs.
In its petition against the December 27 Allahabad High Court order, the UP Government said the HC could not have quashed the December 5 draft notification, which provided for reservation of seats for OBCs in the urban body polls, in addition to quota for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.
The OBCs are a constitutionally protected section and the high court erred in quashing the draft notification, the state government contended.
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had quashed the Uttar Pradesh Government’s December 5 draft notification on urban local body elections and ordered the state government to notify the polls “immediately” as the term of several municipalities would end by January 31.
The HC order had come on PILs challenging the preparation of the OBC reservation draft without following the triple test formula prescribed by the Supreme Court. The HC had earlier stayed the urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh for a fortnight.
The petitioners had contended that the state government must follow the top court’s formula and constitute a dedicated commission to study the political backwardness of OBCs before fixing the reservation.
Maintaining that it had conducted a rapid survey, the state government submitted it was as good as the triple test formula.
The state government had earlier issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils and 545 nagar panchayats for the three-tier urban local body elections and sought suggestions/objections within seven days.
According to the December 5 draft, four mayoral seats — Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut and Prayagraj — were reserved for OBC candidates.
Draft notification
The Allahabad HC had quashed the UP Government’s December 5 draft notification on urban local body poll and ordered the state government to notify the polls “immediately” as the term of several municipalities would end by January 31The order had come on PILs challenging the preparation of the OBC reservation draft without following the triple-test formula prescribed by the SCThe HC had earlier stayed the urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh for a fortnight