The Supreme Court on Wednesday modified an earlier order to allow Madhya Pradesh to hold local body elections with reservations for the Other Backward Classes, Live Law reported.
On May 10, the court had directed the State Election Commission to notify the local body polls within two weeks without providing reservation for OBCs.
In the earlier order, a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said that the state government cannot introduce reservation for the category unless it carries out a triple test exercise that had been mandated for such cases by the Supreme Court in 2010.
The triple test exercise requires that states that wish to introduce reservation should appoint a commission to study the need for the quota, and collect data on the backwardness on the community in question in each local body.
The Madhya Pradesh government then filed a plea to review the Supreme Court’s order. The plea stated that a revised report prepared by the backward classes commission fulfilled the triple test requirement.
On Wednesday, the judges agreed that the revised report complied with the terms of the triple test.
“The report of the dedicated commission was further revised in the light of the observations made by this court [on May 10] and the second report has been submitted by the commission incorporating all the requisite issues, also giving break-up of reservation to be provided local body wise,” Justice Khanwilkar said in the order on Wednesday, reported Live Law.
Reacting to the order, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said it was a “historic day”, ANI reported.
“It has been proven again that truth cannot lose,” he said. “I thank the Supreme Court. We had said we want polls but with OBC reservation.”
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