SC grants time until Mar 31 for govt to submit reservation report on OBCs

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government can now breathe a sigh of relief as the Supreme Court on Thursday provided time until March 3, 2023, to submit a report on political reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body polls.

This also points out that the municipal body elections are unlikely to happen before the assembly elections, set to happen in May 2023. An interlocutory application (IA) was filed by the government before the High Court seeking three months of time in order to conduct a survey to find out the political backwardness of OBCs.

The State Election Commission had opposed the move and had approached the apex court seeking directions to conduct elections. The government had also approached the SC, seeking an extension of time to submit the report.

“Time is granted to the state of Karnataka till 31- 03-2023 for the purpose of analysing the political reservation and reservation of OBCs in local bodies based on the report of the commission and submitting it before this court,” the Supreme Court said. After this order, the government will now have to prepare its report within the stipulated deadline.

Following this, the government will have to notify the time-consuming process of ward reservations, leading to a likely delay in the BBMP elections. In the September 30 order, taking note of the several writ petitions filed against the ward reservations, the court quashed the ward reservation notification.

It had ordered the government to issue a fresh notification before November 30 and conclude elections before December 31. The government had earlier reserved 28 wards for SC, four for ST and 81 seats for the OBCs. Karnataka Assembly elections are set to happen by May 2 023. The BBMP is currently being run by government appointed officers since September 2020.