On Tuesday, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court rejected the state government's draft notification regarding civic polls and gave its verdict to hold the polls without reservation for the OBCs.
Lucknow: On Tuesday, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court rejected the state government’s draft notification regarding civic polls and gave its verdict to hold the polls without reservation for the OBCs. Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Saurav Lavania passed the verdict.
The court intervened in the matter after a petition of PILs challenged the state government’s OBC reservation draft without following the triple test formula set by the Supreme Court.
The state government declared that a rapid survey took place and that it followed the triple test formula. The Lucknow bench completed its hearing on Saturday amid the urban local body elections that were stayed for a fortnight.
Winter vacation was declared in court on Saturday. The bench added that it would hear the case after the break as the matter is related to local bodies’ elections and democracy.
According to the December 5 draft, four mayoral seats were reserved for OBC candidates in Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut, and Prayagraj. The mayor’s posts in Aligarh and Mathura-Vrindavan were reserved for OBC women.
Earlier this month, the state government issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils, and 545 nagar panchayats for the three-tier urban local body elections and sought suggestions or objections within seven days.
Sunil Singh Sajan, spokesperson for the Samajwadi Party, responded to the high court’s decision harshly and said that it is “a conspiracy on the part of the BJP government to strip the backward classes of reservation.”
