These bills have been framed on the lines of a Madhya Pradesh law. (Representational) The Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council unanimously passed two bills on Monday, which would lay the grounds for the postponement of local body elections in Maharashtra till Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation is restored.
As per these bills, the State Election Commission (SEC) will now decide the poll schedule for local and civic body elections in consultation with the state government. Further, the amendments have proposed cancellation of the delimitation process and fixing of wards of the civic and local bodies by the SEC. These bills have been framed on the lines of a Madhya Pradesh law.
The state government introduced two bills to amend the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, 1965, the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act and the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961. The bills were passed unanimously in both the Council and the Assembly.
The Bill stated, “The government has recently increased the number of directly elected councillors in municipal corporations, municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats in the state. The government has also brought a multi-member tier ward system in municipal corporations, municipal council and Nagar Panchayats. In order to bring smoothness and party with the said policy decisions of the government, it considers necessary to take power with the government to divide the area of said local authorities into wards and to specify boundaries thereof.”
It added, “It is also proposes to annual the process to divide the area of said local authorities into wards and to specify the boundaries thereof, which has started or completed by the SEC before the commencement of the proposed amendments.”
In January, the Supreme Court had directed the Maharashtra government to submit data on OBCs to the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes (MSCBC) to examine its correctness and make recommendations on their representation in elections to the local bodies. The SC had also directed MSCBC to submit a interim report to the authorities within two weeks of receiving information from the state government.
Subsequently, the government handed over the data to the MSCBC. The MSCBC, in its 35-page report submitted in February, had recommended up to 27 per cent reservation for OBCs. The report was then submitted to the SC.
The SC, during its March 4 hearing, however, rejected the report. A bench of Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice C T Ravikumar said, “The report itself mentions that the same is being prepared in absence of empirical study and research by the Commission. Having failed to do so, the Commission should not have filed the interim report.”
“As a result, it is not possible to permit any authority, much less the State Election Commission, to act upon the recommendations made in the said report. For the time being, we do not intend to dilate on the correctness of each of the observations made by the commission in the interim report. We, however, direct all concerned not to act upon the interim report as submitted,” the court added.
The bench also directed the SEC to notify the election process in local bodies without further delay and to comply with its earlier order which directed that the OBC seats be treated as general category seats.
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