Goa panchayat polls: High Court questions validity of reservations

The Bombay high court in Goa on Friday declined to interfere in the ongoing process of the state panchayati raj elections but conceded that prima facie, the view is that the state government failed to comply with the triple test for Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations as mandated by the Supreme Court

The Bombay high court in Goa on Friday declined to interfere in the ongoing process of the state panchayati raj elections but conceded that prima facie, the view is that the state government failed to comply with the triple test for Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations as mandated by the Supreme Court.

The Bombay high court. (File Photo)

Hearing a bunch of petitions that challenged the reservations for OBCs as notified by the State Election Commission, the high court ruled that “even though the petitioners have made out a prima facie case about non-compliance with the requirement of the contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness qua local bodies by an independent and dedicated commission, we decline to grant any relief in the petition.”

The Supreme Court in a judgement in May 2010 declared that before any reservations are provided to OBCs for elections to local bodies, three tests will have to be complied with by the State Election Commission and the state government.

The three tests are – to set up a dedicated commission to conduct a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies within the state; to specify the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned local body-wise in the light of recommendations of the commission so as not to fall foul overbreadth; and in any case, such reservation should not exceed the aggregate of 50 percent of the total seats reserved in the favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.

The HC observed that while it was satisfied that in this case, the second and third demands have been complied with the first.

“We are not prima facie satisfied with the compliance with the first test/condition about the dedicated independent commission conducting the contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness qua local bodies in the State of Goa,” the high court bench of justices MS Sonak and RN Laddha said.

The bench observed that since the work was begun only after June 29, “it is inconceivable that the OBC commission could have ventured upon the contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness qua local bodies in the state of Goa.”

Elections to elect representatives to 186 panchayats in Goa will be held on August 10.