By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the green signal to Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation in Madhya Pradesh’s local body elections with a 50% ceiling.“For the time being, we permit the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission to notify the election programme for the respective local bodies keeping in mind the delimitation notifications already issued by the state government as on this date… and also the reports submitted by the dedicated commission,” the court observed.
The court took note of the submission put up by Madhya Pradesh that the delimitation exercise in the state had already been over and notified before May 10.The court took note of the revised reports of the OBC MP Commission in light of the observations made by it.The second report has focused on the proportion of local body reservation to be provisioned for OBCs while maintaining the maximum quota of 50%.
The court clarified that it should not be construed to have expressed a final opinion.The top court permitted MP government to notify the quota pattern local body-wise as delineated in the reports of the dedicated commission, to be adhered to by the State Election Commission within a week from the date of the order.The State Election Commission will issue an election programme in respect to local bodies concerned within a week.
The modification application was filed by the state against the May 10 order of the Supreme Court where it had directed the State Election Commission to hold polls without the OBC quota.The top court had said in the May 10 order that no reservation for the OBCs can be provisioned until the triple-test exercise mentioned in a 2010 Constitution bench verdict is complete. The top court had noted that the number of local bodies at the grassroots levels (rural local bodies) where elections have not been held in the same manner are around 23,073.
The order comes on petitions challenging the validity of provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Municipal Act, 1956, the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Avam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993 and Section 29 of the Madhya Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1961 as being arbitrary and usurping the powers and independence of the State Election Commission.
