The Supreme Court has approved OBC quota in urban bodies in a breather for the Uttar Pradesh government. The court set aside the Allahabad High Court order, which said that the quota failed the “Triple Test” and that OBCs could not be given reservations, and the polls should be held without the reservation. The apex court accepted the report submitted by the government in support of the OBC reservation in the urban bodies.

The UP government had issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors in 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils, and 545 nagar panchayats for urban local body elections on December 5th.

The Allahabad High Court heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Vaibhav Pandey and others. The bench had posited the judgment on the basis of the December 5th draft of the UP government, which had notified reserved seats for OBC and also for OBC-Women. The petitioner had argued that the government did not follow the Supreme Court's reservation formula.

Survey for restoration of OBC reservation

Following the verdict of the High Court, the UP government set up a five-member commission led by former High Court judge Ram Avatar Singh and had retired IAS Chob Singh Verma and Mahendra Kumar as members. The other two members of the commission were legal experts—Santosh Kumar Vishwakarma and Brijesh Kumar Soni. The mandate of the commission was to conduct a survey to restore the reservation of Other Backward Caste in the urban bodies election, the election for which were due in December 2022.

Earlier, in May 2021, the Supreme Court ordered the state election commission of Madhya Pradesh to conduct local body elections without OBC reservation as the quota criteria lacked the “Triple Test.” However, four days later, the Supreme Court reviewed its own verdict and approved the quota in the urban body polls as it passed the “Triple Test.”

In December 2021, the SC had to stay 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes in local body elections in Maharashtra citing "Triple Test," but allowed it in July after the state government presented a report of a commission appointed by it.

The Supreme Court has given the following triple-test formula to create OBC reservations in local body elections:

1. To set up a dedicated commission to conduct empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness within the State

2. To specify the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned local body-wise in light of the commission's recommendations not to exceed the aggregate of 50% of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.

3. In any local body, the reservation for OBCs may be available at the time of issuing election programs (notifications).

Rajendra Chaudhary, the National Spokesperson of Samajwadi Party, welcomed the Supreme Court's decision with a statement. He said, "Had the government released the draft in December with the required backing, the High Court would not have stayed the OBC reservation, and there would not have been such a delay in the elections."