Supreme Court Orders Local Body Elections in Maharashtra Within Four Months

Supreme Court's Directive on Elections

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued an interim ruling mandating that local body elections in Maharashtra be scheduled within four weeks and concluded within four months, as reported by a legal news outlet.

The court has permitted the Election Commission to seek additional time if necessary.

These elections, which encompass 27 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, along with 243 nagar parishads and 289 rural panchayats, have been on hold since 2022 due to ongoing litigation regarding reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBC).

The terms for representatives in these bodies expired between 2020 and 2022.

According to the court, “Currently, bureaucrats are managing all municipal corporations and panchayats, making significant policy decisions.” It emphasized that the ongoing litigation has stalled a complete democratic process, leading to a lack of accountability among officials. The court questioned, “Why not proceed with elections based on the current data?”

OBC communities represent over 38% of Maharashtra's population, making them a crucial voting demographic.

The Maharashtra government had previously announced a 27% reservation for OBCs in local governance. However, this decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2021 for exceeding the 50% cap on total reservations.

In 2022, the state government reinstated the 27% reservation for specific rural and smaller urban areas, following recommendations from the Jayant Kumar Banthia Commission, established in March of that year.

In August 2022, the Supreme Court ordered that the status quo be preserved regarding this issue, and the Banthia Commission's report faced challenges through various petitions.

Since then, the case has been under judicial scrutiny.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court instructed that elections proceed based on the reservation framework that was in place prior to the submission of the report.

The court acknowledged that since elected bodies have fixed terms, there would be no irreversible damage to those advocating for changes in laws regarding the inclusion or exclusion of certain OBC communities, as reported by a legal news outlet.

Following the interim order, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) called on the Supreme Court to expedite the hearing of its petition contesting the Election Commission’s decision to recognize the Eknath Shinde faction as the official party and assign it the bow and arrow symbol.

The party argued that with the court's directive for local body elections, their petition requires urgent attention.