Supreme Court directs Maharashtra EC to notify local body polls

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission to notify local body elections in the state within four months, saying the constitutional mandate of grassroots democracy through periodical elections to local bodies ought to be respected and ensured.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh fixed a timeline for concluding the local body polls, while clarifying that the issue of OBC reservation, in Maharashtra's local body polls, will be as it existed prior to the 2022 Banthia Commission report. The report had recommended the census to fix exact data on OBCs and reserve 27 per seats for the category in local body polls.

The top court asked the state panel to conclude the process in four months and granted liberty to the state election commission (SEC) to seek more time in appropriate cases. The apex court said the outcome of the Maharashtra local body elections would be subject to decisions in pending petitions before it.

During the hearing, the bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Maharashtra government, "You have already identified certain classes of OBCs. Why can't elections be held as per that law without prejudice to the contentions of the petitioners’?" Mehta agreed that elections should not be held up.

The bench said because of the litigations, bureaucrats are occupying all the municipal corporations and panchayats and taking major policy decisions, and the officers have no accountability.

Observing that a democratic process has been stalled, the bench asked, "Why not allow the elections as per the present data?"

A counsel contended that elections should not be held as per the Banthia Commission's report, as 34,000 seats meant for OBCs were de-reserved.

The bench said suppose whosoever has been declared as OBC, based on the report, at least elections should be held, and they are subject to the outcome of the proceedings.

The court said it is an election for a tenure, and if one were to assume that someone has been wrongly included or excluded. If there is an erroneous exclusion, how is it going to make a difference? It is not a permanent election for the entire life, the bench pointed out.

The counsel said representative bodies cannot be left without representatives, and asked the court to give a green signal to the elections.

In August 2022, the apex court had directed the SEC and the Maharashtra government to maintain the status quo with regard to the poll process to the local bodies in the state. The top court passed the order on a plea of the Maharashtra government seeking a recall of court’s order by which it directed the SEC not to re-notify the poll process to 367 local bodies in order to provide reservation to OBCs.

The state government came out with an ordinance providing 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body polls. The government then moved the top court seeking a recall or modification of its order. In July 2022, the court warned the state poll panel of contempt action if it re-notified the election process to such local bodies.

The court had earlier quashed the SEC notification to provide 27 per cent quotas for OBCs in local bodies in 2021. It had held reservation for OBCs in local bodies would not be allowed unless the government fulfilled the triple test laid down in the top court’s 2010 order. The top court ruled the OBC seats would be re-notified as general category seats until then.