The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Maharashtra local body elections to proceed as per the notified schedule, while directing that the results in constituencies where the reservation ceiling appears to have been breached will remain non-operative and subject to adjudication in ongoing constitutional proceedings challenging the State’s revised Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota framework in grassroots institutions.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a batch of petitions, including Rahul Ramesh Wagh v State of Maharashtra, assailing the State’s decision to implement a fresh reservation matrix grounded in the findings of the Banthia Commission.
The petitioners contend that the revised OBC quota breaches the 50 percent ceiling on aggregate reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBCs, a limit judicially crystallised in multiple precedents of the Supreme Court, including Indra Sawhney v Union of India (1992) and more recently in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v State of Maharashtra (2021).
During the hearing, the State Election Commission submitted data indicating that in 40 municipal councils and 17 Nagar Panchayats, the cumulative reservation for constitutionally protected groups exceeds the 50 percent threshold. Two municipal corporations are also understood to have crossed the limit. The Court noted that such prima facie transgressions raise substantial questions regarding compliance with the constitutional mandate under Articles 14, 15(4), 15(5), 16(4), and 243D.
Referring the matter to a three-judge Bench for authoritative determination, the Court fixed January 21, 2026 for further hearing. It permitted the electoral process to continue but ring-fenced the results in all units where reservations exceed the ceiling, directing that they be kept subject to the final outcome of the proceedings.
The Court also clarified that even in constituencies where the reservation matrix remains within the 50 percent limit, the declaration of results will ultimately abide by the Court’s final determination on the legality of the revised framework. The controversy stems from the 2021 Constitution Bench decision in Vikas Gawali, which invalidated the earlier 27 percent OBC quota in Maharashtra’s local bodies and articulated the “triple test” for restoring OBC reservations.
The triple test requires: 1. constitution of a dedicated commission to undertake contemporaneous, empirical, local-body-wise quantification of backwardness; 2. specification of the OBC quota based strictly on such empirical data; and 3. ensuring that the cumulative reservation for SC, ST and OBC categories does not breach the 50 percent constitutional cap.
Following the ruling, Maharashtra set up the Banthia Commission to conduct the mandated empirical study. The Commission’s report and the State’s attempt to translate its findings into a revised reservation matrix now stand at the heart of the present litigation. The Supreme Court has earlier warned the State that the 50 percent limit is non-negotiable for the forthcoming local body elections scheduled for January 31, 2026. The present order operationalises that caution, allowing the democratic process to continue but insulating it from potential constitutional invalidity pending a definitive pronouncement on the permissible contours of OBC reservation in local self-government institutions.
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