The Supreme Court in the case Sunil Kumar v. The State of Bihar and Ors., observed and has issued notice in the petition raising the issue of exclusion of Other Backward Classes, OBCs from the scope of ‘triple test’ for reservation in Municipal Elections of Bihar.
The bench comprising of Justice Surya Kant and Justice KV Viswanathan was hearing the present case.
The court in the case was hearing the petitioner’s challenge to a Patna High Court judgment passed on January 31, which dismissed his writ petition pertaining to the issue.
The said question came up before the Division Bench of the Patna High Court, which vide judgment dated October 4, 2022, wherein the court declared that the reservation of seats for OBC and Extremely Backward Classes in urban local body elections of the state was illegal, as the quotas ‘failed two out of three tests’ set by the Supreme Court in the case Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.
Further, the High Court directed the State Election Commission, SEC to re-notify seats reserved for OBC in the local polls as general category seats.
The court observed that when the review proceedings were initiated in respect of the judgment by the respondent-state, a ‘Dedicated Commission’ was formed to complete the ‘triple test’ exercise. Thus, the said commission submitted a report on EBCs, excluding OBCs from the ambit of the survey. Aggrieved, the petitioner filed a fresh writ petition before the High Court, in which the impugned judgment came to be passed.
The judgement passed concluded that the earlier judgment of October, 2022 did not hold consideration of reservation only for EBCs to be illegal and bad.
The court also relied on the case Dr K Krishna Murthy v. Union of India, which focused on the interpretation of Article 243D(6) and Article 243T(6) of the Constitution of India. Thus, the said articles authorize the enactment of laws allowing reservations for backward classes in panchayats and municipal bodies, respectively.
The Supreme Court in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali propounded the triple test, which is to be followed before providing reservation to the OBC category. In terms of this test, the government shall:
1.Set up a dedicated commission to conduct a rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness in local bodies;
2.To Specify the proportion of reservation required in local bodies in light of recommendations of the commission, so as not to fall foul of overbreadth;
3.To Ensure reservation for SCs/STs/OBCs taken together does not exceed an aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats.
The counsel, Advocate on Record Rahul Shyam Bhandari moved the present petition.