<p>New Delhi: The <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a> on Tuesday said that caste-based reservation in the country has become like a train compartment, and people who get into this compartment don't want to let others in.</p><p>The oral observation was made while hearing a clutch of pleas in connection with the OBC reservation in the local body elections in Maharashtra. </p><p>During the hearing, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing a petitioner, submitted before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh that state's Banthia Commission gave reservation to the OBCs in the local body elections without establishing whether they were politically backward.</p><p>It was argued before the bench that political backwardness was distinct from social and educational backwardness. Sankaranarayanan contended that automatically, OBCs cannot be assumed to be politically backward.</p><p>On this, the bench observed that in this country, the reservation business has become like a railway. “Those who have entered the bogie, they don't want anyone else to enter. That is the whole game,” the bench orally observed, noting that it is precisely the game of the petitioner as well.</p><p>The bench, against the backdrop of the principle of inclusivity, said the state governments are bound to identify more classes. </p>.SC rejects convicts’ plea against 2-judge bench hearing Godhra train burning appeals.<p>“There will be social backwards class, politically backwards class, and economically backwards class. Why should they be deprived of the benefit? Why should it be confined to one particular family or group," the bench asked.</p><p>Senior advocate Indira Jaising, representing a petitioner, contended that despite the identification of OBCs during delimitation, Maharashtra was not using the data for the local body election. She alleged that the state government was running local bodies unilaterally through handpicked officials.</p><p>The bench said the long overdue elections to the local bodies in Maharashtra cannot be delayed further because of the issue of OBC reservations, and deferred the hearing to hear the views of the state government.</p><p>Local body polls in Maharashtra were last held in 2016-2017. The litigation and the delays in the collection of data have become an impediment to conducting the local body polls in the state. </p><p>The apex court, in 2021, struck down a Maharashtra government ordinance to implement a 27 per cent quota for OBCs.</p><p>The court had laid down a three-fold test: setting up a dedicated commission to conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness in local bodies of the state, specifying proportion of reservation required to be provisioned in local body wise in the light of recommendations of the Commission, total reservation for SCs/STs/OBCs shall not exceed 50 per cent.</p>
<p>New Delhi: The <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a> on Tuesday said that caste-based reservation in the country has become like a train compartment, and people who get into this compartment don't want to let others in.</p><p>The oral observation was made while hearing a clutch of pleas in connection with the OBC reservation in the local body elections in Maharashtra. </p><p>During the hearing, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing a petitioner, submitted before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh that state's Banthia Commission gave reservation to the OBCs in the local body elections without establishing whether they were politically backward.</p><p>It was argued before the bench that political backwardness was distinct from social and educational backwardness. Sankaranarayanan contended that automatically, OBCs cannot be assumed to be politically backward.</p><p>On this, the bench observed that in this country, the reservation business has become like a railway. “Those who have entered the bogie, they don't want anyone else to enter. That is the whole game,” the bench orally observed, noting that it is precisely the game of the petitioner as well.</p><p>The bench, against the backdrop of the principle of inclusivity, said the state governments are bound to identify more classes. </p>.SC rejects convicts’ plea against 2-judge bench hearing Godhra train burning appeals.<p>“There will be social backwards class, politically backwards class, and economically backwards class. Why should they be deprived of the benefit? Why should it be confined to one particular family or group," the bench asked.</p><p>Senior advocate Indira Jaising, representing a petitioner, contended that despite the identification of OBCs during delimitation, Maharashtra was not using the data for the local body election. She alleged that the state government was running local bodies unilaterally through handpicked officials.</p><p>The bench said the long overdue elections to the local bodies in Maharashtra cannot be delayed further because of the issue of OBC reservations, and deferred the hearing to hear the views of the state government.</p><p>Local body polls in Maharashtra were last held in 2016-2017. The litigation and the delays in the collection of data have become an impediment to conducting the local body polls in the state. </p><p>The apex court, in 2021, struck down a Maharashtra government ordinance to implement a 27 per cent quota for OBCs.</p><p>The court had laid down a three-fold test: setting up a dedicated commission to conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness in local bodies of the state, specifying proportion of reservation required to be provisioned in local body wise in the light of recommendations of the Commission, total reservation for SCs/STs/OBCs shall not exceed 50 per cent.</p>
