Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Maharashtra, had filed an application related to the order passed by the apex court to stay elections to 27 per cent seats reserved for OBCs.
The Supreme Court heard the matter.
The Supreme Court has given a big decision in the matter of giving OBC reservation to the Other Backward Classes in the local elections in Maharashtra (Maharashtra Civic Poll). Courtesy said on Wednesday that OBC reservation will not be available in local elections. The court also ordered to convert the reserved seats into general seats.
The court heard the petition that last week in the local body elections in Maharashtra, the elections to the reserved seats for OBCs were stayed till further orders. Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice C.T. Ravikumar on Tuesday said it will deal with the matter on Wednesday as elections in the state are on hold. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Maharashtra, told the bench that they have filed an application related to the order passed by the apex court to stay elections to 27 per cent seats reserved for OBCs. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for one of the petitioners, told the bench that the election to all seats can be stayed as the community has to face prejudice by staying on only the seats reserved for OBCs.
Reserved seats will be converted into general seats
Dave urged the top court to find some “equitable solution”, otherwise the OBCs will suffer. “We are continuing tomorrow, you can argue tomorrow (Wednesday),” the bench said. On which the court gave its verdict today. The court said that OBC reservation will not be available in the local elections, while the reserved seats will be converted into general seats.
It is noteworthy that on December 6, the Supreme Court had stayed the 27 per cent seats reserved for OBCs in the local body elections in Maharashtra till further orders. The court made it clear that the election process for other seats would continue. The order was passed by the top court while hearing two petitions. One of these petitions said that the provisions incorporated/amended through an ordinance allow 27 per cent reservation uniformly for backward class citizens in the respective local bodies across Maharashtra. The bench had then said, “Consequently, the State Election Commission cannot be allowed to proceed with the election schedule already notified in respect of seats reserved for OBC category only in the respective local bodies.”
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