UP Govt Moves Supreme Court Against Allahabad HC Order To Conduct UP Urban Body Polls Sans OBC Quota

Two days after the Allahabad High Court directed the State Election Commission/State Government to immediately notify the Urban Local Body Polls without providing OBC reservations, the UP Government has moved an SLP before the Apex Court challenging Allahabad HC's verdict.It may be noted that on December 27, the bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Saurabh Lavania quashed the draft notification of the state government intending to provide an OBC quota for Urban Local Body Polls. The Court had ordered so while holding that the state government failed to fulfill the 'Triple Test' formality laid down by Supreme Court. Now, this verdict has been challenged by the UP government in the apex court today.This comes one day after the UP CM Yogi Adityanath made a public statement that the state shall set up a commission in the perspective of urban body elections and provide reservation facilities to the citizens of Other Backward Classes (OBC) on the basis of triple test and if need be, it shall move the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad HC's verdict. The said commission has now been constituted, read more about it here: UP Urban Body Polls| State Govt Constitutes A Committee For OBC Quota Survey To Fulfill 'Triple Test' FormalityFor the uninitiated, the Allahabad High Court quashed the draft notification issued by the Uttar Pradesh government on December 5 expressing its intent to conduct Urban Local Body Elections while reserving 4 mayor seats in the state for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) despite not fulfilling the 'triple test' formalities as prescribed in the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra & Ors. LL 2021 SC 13 by the Top Court, to determine the political backwardness of OBCs.It may be noted that the court's decision comes in a bunch of pleas challenging the Government's draft notification to provide for OBC quota in the elections without filling the triple test formality.For context, in the Vikas Kishanrao Gawali case, the Apex 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.The Allahabad High Court noted that the UP Government didn't constitute any dedicated Commission to conduct a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies and without such data being available, providing quota for OBC was not valid."8.43 It is not a case where the State has set up the dedicated Commission for conducting the empirical study into the nature and implications of backwardness for the purposes of providing Page No.82 reservation to Backward Class of citizens in the local selfgovernment institutions and thereafter made necessary changes in the statutory prescriptions. Thus, the State has completely failed to comply with the dictum and directions of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the judgments contained in K. Krishna Murthy (supra) and Vikas Kishanrao Gawali (supra)," the Court remarked (emphasis supplied)The Court also stressed that the State cannot be permitted to flout the dictum of the Supreme Court mandating the governments to take a relook at its policies including the Legislative policies with regard to reservation in local self-government bodies."Accordingly, State of Uttar Pradesh was under an obligation to re-frame its policy including by way of having a fresh look at its Legislative prescriptions in tune with the law declared by the Constitution Bench of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of K. Krishna Murthi (supra) and also in the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawai (supra). The State has, however, failed to re-frame its policies according to the mandate of Hon'ble Supreme Court even after a lapse of a period of 12 years hence the plea that the petitioners are not entitled to the relief as claimed in these writ petitions as there is no challenge to the State enactments, is not tenable," the Court ruled.Consequently, in its order, the Court issued the following directions(A) Notification dated 05.12.2022, issued by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, in the Department of Urban Development, under section 9-A (5)(3) is hereby quashed.(B) The Government Order dated 12.12.2022, issued by the State Government which provides for operation of bank accounts of Municipalities under joint signatures of Executive Officers and the Senior Most Officer in Uttar Pradesh Palika Centralized Service (Accounts Cadre) is also hereby quashed.(C) It is further directed that until the triple...

UP Govt Moves Supreme Court Against Allahabad HC Order To Conduct UP Urban Body Polls Sans OBC Quota

Sparsh Upadhyay

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