OBC quota in local body polls: Maharashtra sends ordinance to governor for final approval

The Maharashtra government has sent the ordinance to provide reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the local bodies elections to governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for final approval.

Faisal Malik

The ordinance on OBC quota in local body polls can be promulgated only after the governor’s approval.

The Maharashtra government has sent the ordinance to provide reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the local bodies elections to governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for final approval. The ordinance can be promulgated only after the governor’s approval.

Last week, the state decided to promulgate an ordinance to make amendment to the legislations to provide political reservation to the OBC community in local bodies without breaching the 50% reservation cap mandated by the Supreme Court. The decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting held on Wednesday.

An official said Koshyari has raised a query on the ordinance, but there was no official confirmation about it. “In case of a query by the governor, the state government will send a response in a day or two,” said another official from the chief minister’s office (CMO).

An ordinance is a temporary law approved by the governor (on the advice of the state government), when the state legislature is not in session. An ordinance becomes a permanent Act (the law of the land) on being approved by the state legislature within six weeks, failing which it lapses.

On March 4, the Supreme Court ruled that the reservation in favour of the OBCs in local bodies should not result in exceeding the 50% mandated cap in quota. It has directed the state to appoint a dedicated commission to collect empirical data, based on which the reservation for the community will be fixed and also allowed the state election commission to hold local bodies polls without having reservation for OBCs.

This could prove politically damaging for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and hence it was decided to take ordinance route to save the OBC reservation.

According to the decision, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities will continue to get political reservation quota based on their population in each district, while the OBCs will get the remaining quota within the 50% ceiling. To make it possible, the state rural development department will issue an ordinance to amend two legislations — Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961 and Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act for zilla parishads, panchayat samiti and gram panchayats

The state believes they will be able to secure around 90% seats of the OBC community with the ordinance. However, it is not clear when the Raj Bhavan will clear the ordinance.

The apex court order came in connection with the bypolls in district council elections. The state election commission has already declared bypolls in six district councils on October 5. The new ordinance is unlikely to be useful for the byelections as the schedule is already declared, said a senior MVA minister.

Koshyari and the MVA government have been locked in a bitter tussle for quite some time. The governor is yet to clear the 12 names approved by the state cabinet in November last year to be appointed as the members of the legislative council. Every six years, 12 members are nominated to the Upper House of the state legislature by the governor on the recommendation of the state government.