Filing review plea on SC’s OBC quota ruling is option: Ajit

Mumbai, Mar 05 (PTI):
Moving the Supreme Court with a review petition against its ruling that reservations to Other Backward Classes cannot exceed 50 per cent of the seats in local bodies reserved for SCs, STs and OBCs taken together, was an option before the Maharashtra government, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said in the Assembly on Friday.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said reservation in favour of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in concerned local bodies in Maharashtra cannot exceed aggregate 50 per cent of the total seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and OBCs taken together.
The apex court, while reading down section 12(2)(c) of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, that provided 27 per cent quota for persons belonging to backward class, also quashed notifications issued by the State Election Commission (SEC) in 2018 and 2020 to the extent of providing seat reservation in local bodies concerned for OBCs.
It said election results of OBC candidates, which had been made subject to the outcome of pleas pending before it, are declared as non-est in law and the vacancy of seats be forthwith filled up by the SEC for the remainder term of the local bodies concerned.
Raising the issue in the Legislative Assembly, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP demanded that the Question Hour be set aside and the MVA government make a statement, saying the apex court judgement will have a far reaching impact on OBC quota.
Fadnavis criticised the government for neglecting the issue of OBC quota and not forming a commission to collect empirical (rpt empirical) data on Other Backward Classes population.
“I demand that the government file a review petition citing the coronavirus pandemic and form an OBC commission at the earliest. The government should seek a stay on the order.
“During my tenure (as chief minister), the government had promulgated an ordinance of proportional reservation to OBCs. But the ordinance has now lapsed. The court order puts a question mark on the OBC reservations,” the BJP MLA said.