Panel for EBCs in Bihar rush to submit report on civic polls quota

Days after Patna HC shot down quota for civic polls, government-appointed EBC panel chief, declaring the panel will be ‘dedicated commission’ for this purpose

The State Commission for the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) is rushing to submit “as soon as possible” its report to the Bihar government on whether it is possible to reserve seats under the EBC category in the municipal elections in the State, which were scheduled to be held last month, commission chairperson Navin Kumar Arya said on Friday. 

The Patna High Court had early last month termed reservation for Other Backward Classes and EBCs in the municipal body polls “illegal”, because no separate commission had been formed to evaluate and quantify their “political backwardness”, as per the triple test laid down by the Supreme Court for reserving seats for OBCs in legislative bodies. 

The High Court order of early last month led to a political face-off between the ruling Janata Dal (United) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, with each blaming the other for sabotaging efforts to reserve seats in civic bodies for OBCs and EBCs.  

However, within days of the High Court order, the Bihar government on October 18 notified the appointment of Mr. Arya, [State general secretary of the JD(U)] as the chairperson of the Commission for the Extremely Backward Classes and also notified the appointment of four other members to the commission — all for a period of three years.

Further, on October 21, the Bihar government issued another notification, declaring that this Commission for the Extremely Backward Classes will be the “Dedicated Commission” to determine the political backwardness of the EBCs in the State and examine whether civic body seats can be reserved for them and to what extent.

A month after the commission was tasked with this role, Mr. Arya told The Hindu, “We are looking at the backwardness of EBCs for their reservation in municipal polls. The government has not given us any deadline for this. But the work on preparing our report is being rushed as fast as possible so that we can submit our report on this issue as soon as possible.” 

The rush to have the report submitted comes as the term of the administrators of municipalities is coming to an end in December this year. The administrators were appointed by the State government after the term of the municipal bodies expired in June this year. The State Election Commission had notified the polls for October 10 and 20, with seats reserved for OBCs/EBCs.