From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a setback to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government of Maharashtra, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked it to declare the schedule of the local body elections, including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), within two weeks. It also declared to decide the issue of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations in the election after the poll process takes place.J
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Abhay S Oka and C T Ravikumar In a detailed order on the constitutional validity of the amendments in Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act and other Acts on the delimitation powers taken away by the state government from the State Election Commission, the Court questioned the SEC why elections in large number of local bodies (around 2486) across Maharashtra were overdue and in some cases even overdue for two years, have not taken place despite the court’s peremptory directions. including one on March 3, 2022.
On SEC pointing out that it was handicapped since it cannot proceed until the state government carries out the delimitation, the Court ordered that let delimitation continue as a continuous exercise but it will be relevant only to the future elections after such exercise is completed and it held that the conduct of elections of around 2486 local bodies, which had become due on expiry of the 5-year term and required to be conducted cannot brook any delay.
“Accordingly, the election programme of such local bodies must proceed and the state election commission is obliged to notify the election programme within two weeks from today in respect of such local bodies, on the basis of delimitation done prior to coming into force of the amendment Acts with effect from 11.03.2022,” the order said.
It explained that the delimitation as it existed prior to 11.03.2022 in respect of the concerned local bodies be taken as notional delimitation for the conduct of overdue elections and to conduct the same on that basis in respect of each of such local bodies.
On the request of the state government’s counsel, the Bench added that all steps taken by the SEC and the state government on the basis of directions given in terms of this order will be subject to the outcome of these proceedings.
It also further clarified that until the delimitation is done by the state government in terms of amendment Acts under challenge, the SEC shall give effect to this order in case of upcoming elections which become due in 20 municipal corporations, 25 district councils, 210 municipal councils and 285 panchayat samitis. The municipal corporations that have to go for the elections include Mumbai, Pune, Thane Nashik and the municipal bodies of Kolhapur, Nagpur, Sholapur among others.
The order to declare the poll schedule of the local bodies within two weeks by a Bench of Justices Uday Umesh Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha comes a week after the Apex Court rejected the recommendation of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission’s recommendations to restore 27% reservation to the OBCs. It had also ordered the State Election Commission (SEC) to avoid acting oh the recommendations and better notify the poll process without delay while keeping all the proposed OBC-reserved seats in the general category.
In an affidavit, the SEC had submitted that it will be difficult to conduct the polls during the monsoon due to the potential logistical challenges and it will take time till June to prepare for the polls.
The Supreme Court had rejected the changes effected by the government through two legislations on delimitation and otehr matters. In January, the Supreme Court sought from the state government a report on the status of the OBCs in the state and it rejected a report filed by the state government in March, holding that it was not based on empirical data. The state government, however, took a stand that holding of the elections without OBC reservation was improper.
