The Supreme Court called the situation of Madhya Pradesh as” breakdown of rule of law” after knowing that around 24,000 local bodies have stayed unrepresented for two years as elections for Panchayat and Municipal bodies were not held.
With shock the Supreme Court said “What kind of governance is there in the state as more than 23000 rural local bodies and 321 urban bodies are not functioning for the last two years.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Justices Abhay S Oka and C T Ravikumar after knowing the numbers got worried and said a state policy is difficult to be implemented without the ground level support
It is a constitutional necessity to have elections every five years.The Bench also mentioned that that not only Madhya Pradesh but also Maharashtra have had no elections due to political compulsion which is neither permissible
The bench opined that its a constitutional obligation to hold election on time after every five years and undue delay could not be permitted which is being done which is not a case only to Madhya Pradesh but also in other states including Maharashtra.
The Elections have been getting delayed in these states due to OBC reservation. The Supreme Court has asked three conditions to be fulfilled
(1) to set up a dedicated Commission to conduct empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies
(2) to specify the proportion of reservation required to be given
(3) in any case such reservation shall not exceed aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.
For representing the state Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, apprised the bench saying that the the Commission submitted its report and sought some time to implement the OBC quota. He also told the bench that as state has about 57 percent OBC population it could have not gone unrepresented in local bodies.
The bench, however, disagreed stating that elections are constitutional mandates and whatever was the reason it shuld not have been delayed. It further said that reservation could be granted in future election.
The bench has granted a days time to SGI for bringing all the records to convince the court , failing which the election process will be be initiated forthwith and without granting OBC reservation.