The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear on January 17 an application filed by the Centre to recall a December 17 order staying the local body election process to OBC reserved seats in Madhya Pradesh.
“This will come up on January 17,” a Bench of justices A.M. Khanwilkar and C.T. Ravikumar said.
The court had on December 17 referred to a Constitution Bench the verdict of 2010 that had mentioned three conditions, including the setting up of a dedicated commission to conduct a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua the local bodies in the States, which are required to be followed before provisioning such reservation for the OBC category.
The apex court had, on December 17, also referred to its order, just two days earlier, directing the State Election Commission of Maharashtra to renotify the OBC seats as general category ones.
In its application seeking a recall of the December 17 order, the Centre has said the upliftment of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs has been its utmost priority and an inadequate representation of OBCs in the local bodies defeats the "very object, intent and purpose of the idea" of de-centralisation of power and taking governance to the grassroots level. Eom
