27% seats for OBC in local body polls: Maharashtra moves SC urging recall of direction

Court had passed order on finding that State had not complied with ‘triple test’ requirement before reserving local body seats for OBC

The Maharashtra government has moved the Supreme Court urging for a recall of its direction to the State Election Commission to revert 27% seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body elections to ‘general category’.

When the case was called, the State, represented by senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, informed a Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar about their plea for recall of the order dated December 15 last. The court ordered the election commission to denotify the 27% seats as OBC and issue fresh notification declaring them as belonging to the general category within a week.

“Direct State authority and State Election Commission to treat the notification issued for OBC reservation as non est in every local body in which elections are already notified... In other words, the State Election Commission must immediately issue fresh notification for the 27% seats reserved for OBC as ‘general category’ and initiate election process for those along with the election process for the remaining 73% seats,” it stated.