Friends, you must have read or heard in the media about seat reservations for Other Backward Class (OBC) candidates in elections, be it local bodies or any other elections. It has been going on for a long time, and in the end, Supreme Court (SC) had to intervene.
As local body elections in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra were to take place in 2022. SC had formulated some guidelines last year regarding, if the States want to add quota additional quota for OBC candidates, then the States to complete the ‘Triple Test’ procedure to enable OBC reservations in local polls.
Now, what is this triple test?
In March last year, the SC had laid down the triple test or conditions for the State govt. Need to satisfy before they can notify quotas for OBCs in local body elections. These triple conditions are:
1 Setting up a dedicated commission to conduct ‘rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within the State’.
2 Making of recommendations by the commission on the number of seats to be reserved for OBCs” local body wise”.
3 Ensuring that, cumulatively, seats reserved for SCs, STs, and OBCs do not exceed 50%.
The triple test has now become mandatory for all State govts. To follow was born out of the issue of OBC reservations in Maharashtra.
The judgment came on petitions challenging provisions of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act 1961 that allowed the State govt, to reserve 27% of seats for OBCs in Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis concerned.
While the court upheld this provision, it read it down to mean that it can be invoked only when the triple conditions are satisfied before seats reserved for the OBC category are notified for the local bodies.
Why does SC allow MP to hold elections of local bodies with OBC reservations?
The Backward Classes Commission constituted by MP govt. submitted a report on 5th May 2022 to SC. However, on 10th May, the SC noted that this was just the ’first step towards triple test obligations’ and the commission had not recommended the number of seats to be reserved for OBCs.
After this MP govt filed an application demanding a modification of the 10th May order. The court was told that the commission had prepared a second report on the basis of SC’s observations in the earlier order. It was also told that the delimitation exercise had also been completed and notified before 10th May.
After the SC permitted MP State Election Commission (SEC) to notify the election programme.
Why it won’t change things in Maharashtra
The State govt constituted a Backward Classes Commission in June last year. However, without waiting for its report, the state issued an ordinance amending provisions in two legislations- the Maharashtra Village Panchayat’s Act and the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayats Samiti’s Act. These amendments permitted a 27% quota for OBC in local bodies.
The quota was challenged in the SC, which on 6th December last year, stayed the elections to the 27% OBC category seats in Maharashtra local bodies. In doing so, the SC asserted that the State govt. had not followed the triple test laid down by it. On 15th December, it directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to notify the election process to local bodies without further delay and to treat OBC seats as a general category.
Following this, in January this year, the Sc directed the Maharashtra govt. to submit data available with it to the commission. But in March this year, the court rejected an interim report of the commission, which had recommended the restoration of the 27% quota for OBCs in local bodies.
The court noted that the report mentioned that it was prepared without any empirical study and research, and said that it can not permit the SEC to act on its recommendations. It, however, left it to commission to continue its exercise and submit its final report.
Maharashtra SEC has already released the schedule for drawing the lottery for reservation in 14 Municipal corporations excluding the OBC quota. But still the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) govt. is hopeful that very soon they will be getting the directives on the lines of which were given to MP for holding local body elections.
In my opinion, it was high headedness of the Maharashtra govt., which have landed them in this situation. First, they wanted to bypass SC’s order by issuing an ordinance for OBC reservations, which was challenged in SC where they lost the case. Then the commission appointed by them submitted the report in SC recommending a 27% quota for OBC, without any research or any other survey conducted by them. The commission just recommended the quota based on the earlier ordinance. In all these they lost time, instead if they had done a triple test survey, and submitted the report to SC with their recommendations, they would have also gotten SC’s OK to go ahead with elections, as in the case of the MP govt.
As monsoon season is approaching, the elections may not take place in all the local bodies, especially bigger ones like Municipal Corporations of big cities. As per the statements of various ministers of the MVA govt, the state govt is still hopeful of getting SC’s OK for holding the elections to local bodies with a 27% OBC quota.
Let us see what happens in near future.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
25th May 2022