UP Urban Body Polls| State Govt Constitutes A Committee For OBC Quota Survey To Fulfill 'Triple Test' Formality

The Uttar Pradesh Government on Wednesday constituted a 5 member committee (for a duration of 6 months) to carry out a survey to ensure adequate reservation for OBCs in the State Urban Body Polls by fulfilling the “triple test” formality as mandated by the Supreme Court.The decision to set up the committee was made by the state government a day after the Allahabad High Court directed the State Election Commission to immediately notify the Urban Local Body Polls without OBC reservation.The Court had ordered so by holding that the state government doesn't fulfill the Triple Test Formality as laid down by the Apex Court. Read more about the High Court's order here: "State Doesn't Fulfill Triple Test Formality": Allahabad HC Directs SEC To Notify ULB Polls Without OBC Quota, Include Women QuotaHowever, if one goes by the official statement of the UP CM Yogi Adityanath, the government won't notify/conduct the polls unless and until this commission paves way for providing quota to the OBC. This would mean that the Urban Local Body Polls in the state won't be conducted immediately as ordered by the Allahabad High Court. The relevant statement of the UP CM reads thus:"The Uttar Pradesh government will set up a commission in the perspective of urban body elections and provide reservation facility to the citizens of Other Backward Classes (OBC) on the basis of triple test. Only after this, the urban body general elections will be conducted. If necessary, the State Government will also appeal in the Hon'ble Supreme Court after considering all the legal aspects regarding the decision of the Hon'ble High Court."For the uninitiated, the triple test formality for Local Body elections was made mandatory by the Apex Court in the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawali case, wherein the Top Court had noted that a triple test is to be followed before provisioning reservation for the OBC category. The said triple test involves(1) setting up a dedicated Commission to conduct a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within the State;(2) specifying the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned local body-wise in light of recommendations of the Commission, so as not to fall foul of overbreadth; and(3) not exceeding an aggregate of 50 percent of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.Now, with the constitution of the commission, the government aims to fulfil the first requirement of the test. The committee would work under the chairmanship of Justice (Rtd.) Ram Avtar Singh. The panel also includes retired IAS Chob Singh Verma, retired IAS Mahendra Kumar, former legal advisor Santosh Kumar Vishwakarma and former additional legal advisor and additional district judge Brijesh Kumar Soni as its member.

UP Urban Body Polls| State Govt Constitutes A Committee For OBC Quota Survey To Fulfill 'Triple Test' Formality

Sparsh Upadhyay

Tags