Maharashtra: SC orders status quo on local body polls for 5 weeks, says it will form a special bench

The Maharashtra government had come out with an ordinance providing 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body polls.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a status quo on the local body polls in Maharashtra. It directed the State Election Commission (SEC) and the Maharashtra government to maintain the status quo for five weeks.

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Abhay S Oka and J B Pardiwala took up the plea of the Maharashtra government seeking a recall of the apex court order by which it had directed the SEC not to re-notify the poll process to 367 local bodies, where it has already commenced, to provide reservation to OBCs.

At the outset, the CJI, who is demitting the office on August 26, said the matter needed an elaborate hearing and he would be setting up a separate special bench for its final disposal.

We have heard the counsel, the matter requires an elaborate hearing. Given that we direct the parties to maintain the status quo. List the matter after five weeks. A special bench will be constituted, the top court said in the order.

The state government had come out with an ordinance providing 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body polls.

The government then also moved the top court seeking recall or modification of its order by which it had directed the SEC not to re-notify the poll process to local bodies, where it has already commenced, for providing reservation to OBCs.

The top court had on July 28 warned the state poll panel of contempt action if it re-notifies the election process to 367 local bodies, where it has already commenced, to provide reservation to OBCs.

The SEC, it said, "cannot and shall not" renotify the election programme, voicing displeasure over the "misreading" of its July 20 order. Any breach of its directives will invite contempt for the SEC and others concerned, the court said.

Before this, the bench had on July 20 accepted the recommendations of the Banthia commission providing 27 per cent OBC reservations in local body elections and directed that election to local bodies in the state be notified in the next two weeks.

It had, however, made clear the same day that the new reservation policy will not apply to the 367 local bodies where the election process had already begun.