Uttar Pradesh moves Supreme Court against Allahabad High Court verdict to hold urban local body polls without OBC reservation

The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against Allahabad High Court verdict directing the State to hold urban local body elections without reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs)..A High Court bench of Justices Saurabh Lavania and DK Uphadhyaya had, on December 27, directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct elections on immediate basis without OBC reservation. This was on the ground that the State's notification for OBC reservation failed to fulfil triple test formula laid down by Supreme Court.The High Court had, however, directed to include reservation for women as per constitution.The State has now moved the top court in appeal against the verdict. The High Court verdict came on a batch of pleas against the State government's draft notification to provide OBC reservation in the elections without fulfilling the triple test formality.The bench quashed the government's notification dated December 5, issued by the Department of Urban Development, under Section 9A(5)(3) noting that government intended to conduct local body elections after reserving 4 mayor seats in the State for OBCs despite not fulfilling the 'triple test' prescribed in the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v State of Maharashtra & Ors by the Supreme Court, to determine the political backwardness of OBCs..The Court had observed that the State has not set up the dedicated Commission for conducting the empirical study into the nature and implications of backwardness for the purposes of providing reservation to Backward Class of citizens in the local self-government institutions and thereby has not made necessary changes in the statutory prescriptions."State of Uttar Pradesh cannot, thus, be permitted to flout the dictum of Hon’ble Supreme Court and take a plea that State enactments have not been challenged to deny the reliefs claimed in these petitions for the reason that Hon’ble Supreme Court in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali (supra) reiterated that States ought to take a relook at its policies including the Legislative policies with regard to reservation in local self-government bodies," the High Court had ordered..The High Court had also quashed government order dated December 12 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)."In case, term of Municipal Body comes to an end, till the formation of the elected Body the affairs of such Municipal Body shall be conducted by a three-member Committee headed by the District Magistrate concerned, of which the Executive Officer/Chief Executive Officer/Municipal Commissioner shall be a member. The third member shall be a District Level Officer to be nominated by the District Magistrate," the Court had held..After the verdict, the State appointed a five-member committee for OBC reservation in urban local body elections.“The commission will present its report after conducting a triple test for reservation for the OBC class in the body elections. On the basis of that report only, the government will fix the OBC quota in municipal elections,” the official statement by State said.