OBC Quota in Local Body Election

OBC Quota in Local Body Election

Subject :Polity

Context: Uttar Pradesh government moved the Supreme Court against an Allahabad High Court direction to hold local body elections in the State without reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC).

Background of the case:

• Uttar Pradesh government had issued a draft notification for the reservation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in urban local body elections.
• The verdict comes on the back of PILs challenging the state’s OBC reservation draft.
• It was alleged that it was prepared without following the “triple test” formula prescribed by the Supreme Court.
• The Court said that OBC reservation in local body polls cannot be provided until conditions mandated in the “triple test” are complied with.

About Triple Test:

• In 2010, the SC had laid down the ‘triple test’. These triple conditions are:
  • Setting up a dedicated commission to conduct “rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within the state”.
  • Making of recommendations by the commissionon the number of seats to be reserved for OBCs “local body wise”.
  • Ensuring that, cumulatively, seats reserved for SCs, STs and OBCs do not exceed 50 percent.

About  2010 Judgement:

• The five-judge Constitution Bench decision in Krishnamurthy (Dr.) v. Union of India (2010) wherein the Supreme Court had interpreted Article 243D(6) and Article 243T(6), which permit reservation by enactment of law for backward classes in panchayat and municipal bodies respectively, to hold that barriers to political participation are not the same as that of the barriers that limit access to education and employment.
• However, for creating a level playing field, reservation may be desirable as mandated by the aforementioned Articles which provide a separate constitutional basis for reservation, as distinct from what are conceived under Article 15 (4) and Article 16 (4) which form the basis for reservation in education and employment.
• The court had explained that though social and economic sense could act as a barrier to effective political participation and representation, such backwardness cannot be the sole criterion for identifying the backward classes inadequately represented politically.

Reservation of Seats in Local Body Elections

• Reservation of seats for scheduled 0063astes and scheduled tribes:
  • The 73rd & 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 provides for the reservation of seats for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in every panchayat/municipality (i.e., at all three levels) in the proportion of their population to the total population in the panchayat area/municipal area.
• Reservation of offices of chairperson:
  • Further, the state legislature shall provide for the reservation of offices of chairperson in the panchayat/municipality at any other level for the SCs and STs.
• Reservations for women:
  • The act provides for the reservation of not less than one-third of the total number of seats for women (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging the SCs and STs).
  • Further, not less than one-third of the total number of offices of chairpersons in the panchayats/municipality at each level shall be reserved for women.
• Reservations for Backward Classes:
  • The act also authorises the legislature of a state to make any provision for reservation of seats in any panchayat/municipality or offices of chairperson in the panchayat/municipalities at any level in favour of backward classes.