Lucknow, December 28
The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday appointed a five-member commission for providing reservation to Other Backward Classes in urban local body elections.
The panel will be headed by Justice (Retd) Ram Avtar Singh. The four other members are retired Indian Administrative Service officers Chaub Singh Verma and Mahendra Kumar and former legal advisors to the state Santosh Kumar Viskarma and Brajesh Kumar Soni.
The members were appointed following approval from the governor.
A notification on the panel’s constitution, issued by the Urban Development department, said the commission’s term would be for a six-month period from the day of taking charge.
The panel’s constitution comes a day after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court quashed the state government’s draft notification on urban local body elections and ordered it to hold the polls without reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
The high court order came on the back of pleas challenging the preparation of the OBC reservation draft without following the triple test formula prescribed by the Supreme Court.
Following the verdict, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had asserted that elections to urban local bodies would not be held without reservation for OBCs.
The state government will set up a commission on urban body elections and provide reservation to the OBCs on the basis of the triple test, he had said.
The ‘triple test’ formula requires setting up of a commission to hold a ‘rigorous empirical inquiry’ into the nature of ‘backwardness’ in the context of the local bodies, specifying the proportion of reservation based on the commission’s recommendations, and not exceeding the overall 50 per cent quota limit.
While the court order invited flak from the state government, the opposition, including the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, attacked the Adityanath-led regime.