UP Nagar Nikay Chunav 2023: The Supreme Court on Monday (March 27, 2023) allowed the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation in the upcoming urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh and directed the State Election Commission to release a notification regarding the same within two days. The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government had submitted the report to the apex court after a five-member committee set up by it looked into the issue of reservation to OBCs in the UP Nagar Nikay Chunav.
The panel was constituted after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had in December last year quashed the state government’s draft notification on urban local body elections and ordered it to hold the polls without reservation for OBCs.
The court had stated that the state government failed to fulfill the “triple test” formality for OBC reservation in local body polls laid down by the Supreme Court.
It is notable that the “triple test” formula requires setting up of a commission to hold a “rigorous empirical inquiry” into the nature of “backwardness” in the context of local bodies, specifying the proportion of reservation based on the commission’s recommendations, and not exceeding the overall 50 per cent quota limit.
Following the Allahabad HC verdict, CM Adityanath had asserted that elections to the state’s urban local bodies would not be held without reservation for OBCs and had set up the commission. The UP government had also moved the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court’s order.
According to UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, the state government is determined to ensure 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in the upcoming local body elections.
