The Supreme Court today said that the elections to municipal bodies be announced in two weeks in the state.
The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar, while hearing the petitions filed with respect to giving reservations to OBCs in Maharashtra and many other states, today said that the elections to municipal bodies be announced in two weeks in those states, and also said that the elections will have to be conducted as per the old ward structuring.
The Apex Court today refused to modify its earlier order in which it did not allow the state of Maharashtra to provide for 27% quota for OBCs in local bodies.
The Maharashtra state government had started the local election process, after it gave a go ahead to the OBC reservation. To this regard, the Supreme Court said, it will hear its constitutional validity later on.
The Maharashtra state government while approaching the top court said that the SBCC has granted the clearance for restoring the 27 per cent quota for other backward classes (OBC) in local bodies across the state, and it now required a nod from the top court to reserve seats for OBC in local body elections.
The Maharashtra government, in its application, said that on February 5, the SBCC gave its recommendation allowing the state government to go ahead with the implementation.
The Supreme Court in March had rejected the Maharashtra government’s decision to reserve 27% seats for other backward classes (OBCs) in local bodies, and trashed an interim report by the state backward commission recommending reservation for OBCs over “lack of rationale” and “absence of cotemporaneous data”.
The Supreme Court also today refused to interfere to a petition seeking interference and direction in the reservation given to the OBC in the Jharkhand state local body elections.
Petition has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the reservations not given to the OBC (Other Backward Classes) in the local body elections.
It is to be noted that Parliamentarian, Chandra Prakash Chowdhary has filed the petition before the Supreme Court seeking appropriate direction and order in the matter.
In Jharkhand, the local body elections were being conducted in four phases, but it is a fact that the OBCs were not given reservation in these local body elections, the petitioner, Chowdhary claimed.