The Uttar Pradesh Government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court order quashing its draft notification on the urban local body elections and directing the State to hold the polls without reservation for the Other Backward Classes.
The UP Government, in its appeal against the December 27 order, has said the HC cannot quash December 5 draft notification which provided for quota of seats in the urban body polls for the OBCs apart from those for the SC, ST and women. The appeal, filed through advocate on record Ruchira Goel, said the OBCs are a constitutionally protected section and the HC erred in quashing the draft notification.
The Uttar Pradesh Government had on Wednesday appointed a five-member commission for going into the entire gamut of issues for providing reservation to the OBCs in urban local body polls. The panel will be headed by Justice (Retd) Ram Avtar Singh. The four other members are retired Indian Administrative Service officers Chaub Singh Verma and Mahendra Kumar, and former legal advisors to the State Santosh Kumar Viskarma and Brajesh Kumar Soni.
The Lucknow bench of the High Court had ordered that the State Government should notify the polls “immediately” as the term of several municipalities would end by January 31, while annulling the December 5 draft notification.
The court had directed the State Election Commission to hold the elections by January 31 after transferring the OBC seats in the draft notification to the general category.
The HC order had come on the pleas challenging the preparation of the OBC reservation draft without following the “triple test” formula prescribed by the Supreme Court. The triple test requires setting up a commission to hold a “rigorous empirical inquiry” into the nature of the “backwardness” in the context of the local bodies, specifying the proportion of reservation based on the commission’s recommendations, and ensuring that it does not exceed the overall 50 per cent quota limit.
The High Court had held the triple test condition formulated by the Supreme Court 11 years ago mandatory. “Until the triple test is completed in all respects by the State Government, no reservation for backward class of citizens shall be provided,” the order said. It had said the term of the municipal bodies in the state has either ended or shall end by January 31, 2023.
Since the process of meeting the triple test is “arduous and is likely to take considerable time”, it had directed the State Government and the State Election Commission to notify the elections “immediately” without the OBC quota. On the reason for immediate notification of the elections, it cited Article 243U of the Constitution on holding elections before the term of a municipality expires.