UP OBC reservation: In a significant verdict, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Tuesday ordered holding of urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh without any reservation for Other Backward Class (OBCs). The division bench of Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Saurav Lavania quashed the UP government's draft notification regarding local body elections.
The bench quashed the draft notification issued by the Uttar Pradesh government on December 5 for reservation of Other Backward Classes in the urban local body elections.
The verdict comes on the back of PILs challenging the preparation of the OBC reservation draft without following the triple test formula prescribed by the Supreme Court.
OBC reserved seats will now be treated as general
Following the High Court's judgment, all the seats reserved for OBC caste will now be considered as general. Which means, now any person can contest elections on these seats. However, the court has said that reservation for SC, ST seats will continue as usual. The urban local body polls can be held in January provided that the UP government doesn't challenge the latest verdict in the Supreme Court.
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Won't compromise with interests of backward classes: KP Maurya
Reacting to the high court's verdict, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya the government will study the judgment in detail, and decide on the next course of action, however, there will be no compromise on the rights of backward classes.
"The final decision will be taken at the government level after a detailed study of the order of the Honorable High Court of Allahabad regarding the urban body elections, but there will be no compromise on the rights of the backward classes," Maurya said in a tweet.
BJP govt has betrayed backward people: Samajwadi Party
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of betraying the backward classes, the Samajwadi Party said there was a conspiracy by BJP to dismantle Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar's constitution.
"The BJP government deliberately made flawed provisions regarding reservation in order to kill the rights of backwards and Dalits," the Samajwadi Party said.
(With inputs from agencies)
