Supreme Court Allows Local Body Elections In Uttar Pradesh With OBC Quota

The Supreme Court on Monday (March 27) permitted notifications for setting up the election process for the local bodies in the State of Uttar Pradesh with OBC quota within two days. It allowed the State Election Commission to issue a notification in this regard in two days with an OBC quota in terms of a report of the Uttar Pradesh Backward Classes Commission.

A a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala passed the order in the plea filed by the Uttar Pradesh government against the Allahabad High Court’s decision asking the State to conduct urban local body polls without OBC reservations.

On 4 January 2023, the Supreme Court had stayed the Allahabad High Court's direction to the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission to notify the Urban Local Body Polls without OBC reservation. The bench noted that in view of the decision of the Constitution bench in Dr K Krishna Murthy v. Union of India (2010) and of the three-judge bench in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra (2021), the government of Uttar Pradesh had issued notification dated 28 December 2022 constituting the Uttar Pradesh State local bodies dedicated backward classes Commission. 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the commission  had submitted its report on 9 March 2023 and also stated that the notifications for setting up the election process for the local bodies in the State of Uttar Pradesh were in motion and would be issued within two days. The bench held–

"We permit the State of Uttar Pradesh to do so. The order of the High Court which had directed the State to hold elections for local bodies in Uttar Pradesh without preserving seats for backward classes of citizens is now subsumed in the present order of this court. The observations of the impugned judgement of the High Court shall does not be treated as precedent in future."

Dr Mohan Gopal, appearing for the All India Backward Classes Federation argued that the "triple test" as established under the Krishna Murthy judgement had been extended to the entire country. He submitted that the backward classes were "watching this anxiously all across the country" and requested the court to subsume the Krishna Murthy judgement in the 105th Constitutional Amendment. 

The triple test was established in the Krishna Murthy judgement and reiterated in the Gawali judgement. The triple-test formula was established to create OBC reservation in local body elections. The three tests laid down are:

a. To set up a dedicated Commission to conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within the state;

b. To specify 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 over breadth;

c. In any case such reservation shall not exceed aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.

Dr Gopal argued–

"The fundamental basis of Krishna Murthy was that there is no Constitutional provision regulating the identification of backward classes, unlike for SCs and STs. As we know, 105th amendment to the Constitution introduced to specific mechanism by which the States were given power to create by law a list of backward classes. That clashes with the triple test which requires creation of commission...We don't want to and bundle backward classes. We only want one list of backward classes so we must ensure that Krishna Murthy is subsumed under 105. It would only be that list created by law."

However, the bench noted that it did not wish to get into the larger issues. CJI DY Chandrachud said–

"We are not commenting on the High Court order because that gets subsumed in our final directions."

Case Title: State of UP v. Vaibhav Pandey And Anr. SLP(C) No. 128/2023

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