The Supreme Court today orally said that elections of 20 Zilla Parishads and 211 Panchayat Samitis, which are yet to be held in the State of Maharashtra, can be conducted without exceeding the reservation ceiling limit of 50 per cent.

A bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi was dealing with a bunch of petitions related to Maharashtra local body elections, which remained held up between 2022 and 2025 over issues pertaining to reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

In May 2025, the Court had passed an interim order paving way for the local body polls to be held in the state. Subsequently, however, certain applications were filed before it, contending that the ceiling limit of 50% reservation (contemplated by a Constitution Bench in K Krishna Murthy judgment) was breached in case of some local bodies. This led the Court to later observe that the Maharashtra authorities misconstrued its 2025 order and that the 50% limit was not to be exceeded.

Today, at the outset, Senior Advocates Indira Jaising and Gopal Sankaranarayanan gave a brief layout of the issues involved in the matter. Jaising particularly highlighted that the 50% ceiling limit appears to have been breached in districts where population of Scheduled Tribes is high. She further contended that the Court needs to consider the criteria on which reservation to OBCs can be granted.

"As far as the main issue - we are concerned with interpretation of Krishna Murthy judgment. Court has taken view that overall reservation can't exceed 50%. Our point is that political reservations do not stand on same footing. Therefore that limit will not apply to political reservations. Proportion of population criteria will also apply to OBC...that may lead to limit being exceeded...what is happening is STs are taking up entire quota...in those constituencies, there is no reserved seat for OBCs. Can you give zero reservations? That's the issue. Suggestion is - remaining Parishads - let those elections be completed. Right now, we are getting 0 reservation. Where elections have been held, 50% has been exceeded in schedule 5 areas", Jaising submitted.

She further urged the Court to call for data from the state on the districts where 50% limit was exceeded. It was also contended that even as per Krishna Murthy judgment, reservation can exceed 50% limit in exceptional cases.

The Court proposed to hear the matter today, but a submission came from the Bar side that elections to most local bodies had been conducted in Maharashtra. Only 20 Zilla Parishads and 211 Panchayat Samitis remain, to which elections could be conducted with the same caveat (that 50% reservation limit not be exceeded), the counsel submitted.

Hearing the parties, the Court proposed to allow the elections to be so held (subject to the final outcome of the proceedings). "Our issue is clear...we have said you don't exceed with 50%...in the remaining, if you all agree that same criteria can be followed, we don't have difficulty", said CJI Kant.

However, Senior Advocate Balbir Singh, for the State Election Commission, pointed out that the Special Intensive Revision exercise is going on in Maharashtra and it would be difficult to conduct the local body polls alongside. "Entire staff engaged in SIR. To stop that and get into this...it would be difficult. Under RP Act, ECI has already notified all officers. ECI needs to come forward and say if it can spare officers," he submitted.

The bench, in response, noted that the local body polls are not required to be conducted by the ECI (which is conducting SIR). Therefore, it was for the State Election Commission to take up the issue of logistical support with the ECI.

At the same time, the Court assured that it would ensure sufficient manpower and logistic support for the state to conduct the elections, if such directions are required. The matter was listed on Friday, while calling on the parties to suggest formal issues required to be considered by the Court. The SEC was asked to obtain instructions qua provision of adequate logistical support and come up with an election schedule to hold the elections in August-September.

To recap, some of the petitions assail the non-conduct of elections to Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis in the State of Maharashtra allegedly on account of reservations exceeding the 50% ceiling limit laid down by the Court in K Krishna Murthy v. Union of India and Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra.

In the Gawali case (2021), the Supreme Court struck down the 27% OBC reservation given under the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961 on the ground that it resulted in the breach of 50% cap.

In 2022, the Court directed status quo to be maintained qua OBC (Other Backward Classes) reservations in Maharashtra local elections. This meant that the OBC quota could not be implemented for the time being in 367 local bodies where the election process had already been notified.

In May 2025, the Court passed an interim order to hold the local body elections in the state (where were deferred since 2022). It was directed that the elections be held as per the OBC reservation which existed prior to the submission of the Banthia Commission report in July 2022. A bench led by Justice Surya Kant (now CJI) directed the State Election Commission to notify the local body elections within four weeks.

It was ordered that efforts be made to complete the election process within a period of four months. The Election Commission was given liberty to seek extension of time if needed.

In November 2025, the Court came across applications claiming that the reservation in some local bodies was exceeding 50% limit. It observed that the total reservation could not exceed 50% ceiling limit and its May order was seemingly misconstrued by the state authorities. The authorities were asked to not implement reservation in excess of 50%. They were also asked to apprise about the number of municipalities in which the 50% threshold was crossed.

Later, elections to certain local bodies were held in the State. Recently, the Supreme Court also issued notice on another petition seeking immediate conducting of local body polls in Maharashtra while treating reserved seats above 50% as open seats.

Case Title: RAHUL RAMESH WAGH v. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ORS., SLP(C) No. 19756/2021 (and connected cases)