The Supreme Court on Monday gave the green signal to conduct civic polls in Uttar Pradesh with OBC reservation. The Supreme Court also ordered the State Election Commission to issue election notification within two days. The top court also accepted the report submitted by the government regarding OBC reservation.
Welcoming the Supreme Court decision, UP CM Yogi Adityanath tweeted, "Accepting the report of the OBC commission by the Supreme Court, the order to conduct urban body elections with OBC reservation is welcome. Following the rules of reservation in a lawful manner, the government is committed to conduct urban body elections in a time-bound manner."
The urban local body (ULB) election, supposed to be the last major polls in Uttar Pradesh before the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has been embroiled into a caste row even before they could be conducted.
The UP government had constituted a five-member commission, headed by Justice Ram Avtar Singh (retd), to carry out a survey to ensure that the benefits of the reservation are provided to the OBCs. The panel was formed after the Allahabad High Court had ordered the holding of urban local body polls without giving reservation to OBCs last year.
READ | UP Cabinet Accepts Report Of Five-Member Panel On OBC Reservation In Urban Body Polls
The High Court had stated that the state government failed to fulfill the "triple test" formality for OBC reservation in local body polls laid down by the Supreme Court.
However, the Supreme Court stayed the Allahabad High Court direction on January 5 this year. The Supreme Court bench said that if the polls were held without OBC reservation, one segment would remain unrepresented.
The Supreme Court, noting that the term of some of the urban local bodies had already expired, had allowed the Yogi Adityanath-led government to delegate financial powers to a three-member administrative body headed by the District Magistrate to run these bodies temporarily.
"For the purpose of ensuring that the administrative work of the local bodies is not hampered, the government would be at liberty to issue a notification for the delegation or the case may be discharge its financial powers," the SC bench said, adding that this, however, will be "subject to the caveat that no major policy decisions shall be taken by the administrative authority".
The final voters' list for the local body elections will be published on April 1. The provisional list was announced on March 10.