NEW DELHI: The SC has cleared decks for the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) to go ahead with the election process for all municipal corporations, zila panchayats and panchayat samitis in the state, except where total reservation exceeded the 50% ceiling. The SEC informed the court that quota exceeds 50% in two of the 29 corporations.The SEC, through senior advocate Balbir Singh, informed a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the quota exceeds 50% in two of the 29 municipal corporations, and that a similar exercise to compute the total reservation in 32 zila panchayats and 336 panchayat samitis will be carried out soon. The bench directed the SEC to initiate the election process for these three categories of local bodies, which include the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The SEC said it would soon announce the election schedule for these local bodies.SEC also informed the court that of the 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats, where polling is scheduled for Dec 2, the total reservation exceeded the 50% ceiling in 57 of them – 40 in municipal councils and 17 in nagar panchayats. The bench said till it decided the petitions, reservation cannot exceed 50% in any of the civic bodies. Directing the SEC to hold the Dec 2 polls as scheduled, it said results of the 57 local bodies, where reservation exceeds 50%, would be subject to the outcome of pending petitions. It fixed the final hearing on these petitions on Jan 21.Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioners, repeatedly stressed that the total reservation, including OBC, cannot exceed the 50% ceiling fixed by constitution benches of SC. He said in local body territory where SC and ST population exceeded 50%, proportionate quota for them can exceed 50%, with no reservation for OBCs. Senior advocate Indira Jaising contested this stand, saying this would deprive backward classes of quota and result in absence of their representation in the civic bodies.The elections could not be conducted in the civic bodies because of a status quo order passed by SC in Aug 2022 on petitions challenging the state govt’s ordinance, which based on the Banthia Commission recommendations had provided for 27% OBC reservation in local bodies.Giving 27% quota to OBCs in all civic bodies, the petitions said, would breach the 50% ceiling on reservation in certain areas where SC and ST constitute a majority, warranting assigning of quota over and above the standard 15% and 7.5% reservation for them respectively, and correspondingly the OBC quota would shrink to keep the total quota within the 50% limit.On May 6, SC had asked the SEC to complete by Sept 30 the elections for local bodies following the OBC reservation criteria as existed prior to the Banthia Commission’s report in July 2022. On Sept 16, SC had extended the deadline to Jan 31after criticising the SEC for giving excuses to justify its lethargy in completing the exercise within the time limit.
