Allahabad HC's green signal to urban local body polls sans OBC reservation

Lucknow: The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on Tuesday said no reservation should be provided to Other Backward Class (OBC) until triple test exercise is completed by the Uttar Pradesh government and further directed it to notify the election for the urban local bodies forthwith.

In its 87 page order on a bunch of petitions, the bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Saurabh Lavania said, "It is further directed that until the triple test/conditions as mandated by the Supreme Court is completed in all respects by the State Government, no reservation for Backward Class of citizens will be provided."

It said, "Since the term of Municipalities has either ended or will be coming to an end by January 31 and the process of completion of triple test/conditions being arduous, is likely to take considerable time, it is directed that the State Government/State Election Commission will notify the elections immediately."

"While notifying the elections the seats and offices of Chairpersons, except those to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, will be notified as for general or open category. The notification to be issued for elections will include the reservation for women in terms of the constitutional provisions," it added.

The court said, "In case, the term of Municipal Body comes to an end, till the formation of the elected Body the affairs of such Municipal Body will be conducted by a three-member Committee headed by the District Magistrate concerned, of which the Executive Officer or Chief Executive Officer or Municipal Commissioner will be a member. The third member shall be a District Level Officer to be nominated by the District Magistrate."

"However, the said Committee will discharge only day-to-day functions of the Municipal Body concerned and shall not take any major policy decision," it added.

The bench said, "We have issued the direction to immediately notify the elections being guided by the provisions of Article 243-U of the Constitution of India which mandates that election to constitute a Municipality will be completed before expiry of its duration."

It said, "We understand that collection and collation of materials by the dedicated Commission is a humongous and time taking task, however, formation of elected Municipal Bodies by election cannot be delayed for the reason of constitutional mandate contained in Article 243-U of the Constitution of India. Thus to fortify the democratic character of governance of society, it is essential that the elections are held at the earliest which cannot wait."

It ordered, "We also direct that once the dedicated Commission is constituted for undertaking the exercise of conducting empirical study as to the nature and implications of backwardness for the purposes of providing reservation to Backward Class of citizens in the context of elections to the urban local bodies, the claim of transgenders for their inclusion amongst Backward Class of citizens will also be considered."

The bench quashed a notification issued by the Urban Development Department on December 5 inviting objections to the proposed determination of the number of offices of the Chairpersons of different Municipal Bodies to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Women.

It also quashed the Government Order issued by the government on December 12 which provides for operation of bank accounts of Municipalities under joint signatures of Executive Officers and the Senior Most Officer in Uttar Pradesh Palika Centralised Service (Accounts Cadre).

BJP shedding crocodile tears on OBC reservation: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is "anti-reservation" is shedding crocodile tears on reservation to Other Backwards Class (OBC) in local body polls.

In a statement issued here, Akhilesh said, "BJP is shedding crocodile tears on reservation to OBC in local body election. Today BJP has taken away the reservation rights of backward people, tomorrow it will also take away the reservation given to Dalit by Babasaheb."

He said the BJP government has not only cheated the backwards but also conspired to destroy the constitution given by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. "The decision to end reservation for OBCs in civic elections is unfortunate. The facts were deliberately not presented before the court. 60 percent of the population of Uttar Pradesh has been deprived of reservation. The arbitrary process was done by the BJP only for its own benefit," he alleged.

Akhilesh said SP has always fought for social justice by imbibing the ideas of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. "SP demanded caste census and social justice. BJP is scared of this fight for justice by SP. Earlier, it also lied on 17 most backward castes," he said.

He said the anti-backward intent of the BJP government has become clear. "What the BJP is not able to do on its own, it gets it done through Public Interest Litigation (PIL). BJP's character and face has got exposed in front of the whole world. Those who used to call themselves well-wishers of the backward class are looking like bonded labourers in BJP today," he said. (UNI)