SC To Hear UP Govt's Plea Challenging Allahabad HC Order To Conduct Local Body Polls Without OBC Quota Today

The SC will hear the plea of the UP government challenging the Allahabad High Court order directing the State poll panel to hold urban local body elections without reservation for the OBCs today.

File Photo of the Supreme Court.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on January 4 the plea of the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the Allahabad High Court order directing the State poll panel to hold urban local body elections without reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), as reported by the news agency ANI.

The matter was mentioned for an urgent hearing by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh government before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. The apex court said it would hear the case on Wednesday, ANI reported. The UP government has approached the top court challenging the December 27 order of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court where it quashed a government's order of December 5 proposing reservations for OBCs in civic elections.

The High Court had ordered the State Election Commission to "immediately" notify elections to the urban local bodies without OBC quotas. The High Court had said that until the "triple test" as mandated by the Supreme Court is completed in all respects by the State government, no reservation for the Backward Class of citizens shall be provided in the urban local body polls.

The High Court had asked the State government to set up a commission to conduct an empirical study on the nature and backwardness to be able to have OBC quotas in the next election to urban local bodies but stressed that it could not pause the election process till this humongous and time taking task was completed.

The state government would constitute a survey commission to ensure that the benefits of the reservation are provided to the OBCs based on the "triple test", UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a statement after the order. 

A five-member committee is constituted by the government to carry out a survey to ensure adequate reservation for OBCs in the State urban local body polls by fulfilling the "triple test" formality as mandated by the Supreme Court.

The High Court had directed to include reservations for women as per the constitution.
The order of the High Court came on a bunch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) alleging that the State government is carrying out the entire exercise of reservation of seats in the municipalities in "complete derogation and defiance" of the mandate of the Supreme Court, ANI reported.

The Urban Development Department of the Uttar Pradesh government announced reservations for the seats of the Mayor in municipal corporations and Chairpersons of Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats on December 5.

(With ANI Inputs)