Hold overdue Maharashtra local polls within 4 months, Supreme Court tells state election panel

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Maharashtra state election commission to notify elections for local bodies within four weeks while disapproving bureaucrats manning the panchayats and municipal corporations because of the non-holding of elections.With solicitor general Tushar Mehta appearing for Maharashtra agreeing with senior advocate Indira Jaising for holding elections without following the recommended reservations for OBCs in local bodies, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh asked the EC to follow the OBC reservation specifications as existed before the Banthia Commission’s report of July 2022.The bench said since recommendations of the Banthia Commission have not yet been fully crystallised by the state govt, the elections to local bodies – there are 409 urban local bodies and over 28,000 rural local bodies – will be held as per the OBC reservations applicable to constituencies prior to July 2010. Elections had not been held in many of these local bodies for years because of SC’s status quo order in Aug 2022. The bench said it is unthinkable in our country, where grassroot democracy is given importance both in society and in the Constitution, to find local bodies without representatives of people and manned by bureaucrats without any accountability.“The Constitution mandates grassroot democracy through periodical elections to local bodies. This ought to be respected since elected bodies have a prescribed term and no irreversible damage will be caused by holding elections,” the bench said.The elections will be subject to the outcome of the petitions pending in the court, the bench said. The elections had not been conducted because of a status quo order passed by the SC in Aug 2022 on petitions challenging the state govt’s ordinance, which based on Banthia Committee recommendations had provided for 27% OBC reservation in local bodies. The SC had stayed the election process on the ground that there must be enumeration of OBC population on the ground. The solicitor general told the bench that the enumeration of OBC population on the ground required layered processes to be completed and hence could take time. However, he said the state govt has no objection to the SC directing holding of the elections based on pre-2022 OBC reservation stipulations.Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said Banthia commission specified 27% reservation in local bodies without ascertaining political backwardness of OBCs and differentiating from social and educational backwardness to indicate possibility of perpetuation of stranglehold of a few OBC communities over the local bodies. SC said, “The reservation business in the country has become like railways. Those who have entered the bogies do not want others to enter. That is the whole game and precisely the game of petitioners.”