Context:
After the Allahabad High Court ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to hold urban local body elections without reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) because the ‘triple test’ requirement for the quota had not been fulfilled, the state set up a commission for this purpose.
- The five-member commission will conduct a survey to ensure that the OBCs are provided reservation on the basis of the triple test, as mandated by the Supreme Court.
Relevance:
GS II: Polity and Governance
Dimensions of the Article:
- What is triple test?
- What procedure was UP following before this?
What is triple test?
- The triple test requires the government to complete three tasks for finalisation of reservation to OBCs in the local bodies. These include:
- To set up a dedicated commission to conduct a rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness in local bodies;
- 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;
- To ensure reservation for SCs/STs/OBCs taken together does not exceed an aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats.
- These triple test/conditions were outlined by the Supreme Court in the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawali vs. State of Maharashtra and others, decided on March 4, 2021.
What procedure was UP following before this?
- The Urban Development Department of the UP government had on April 7, 2017 issued orders to conduct a rapid survey for determining the population of OBCs.
- Based on such a rapid survey in each constituency of a municipality, seats were reserved in proportion to the population of the backward class of citizens in the constituency/ward concerned.
- Recently, The BJP government said that all previous governments since 1994 had used the same rapid survey, for the polls held in 1995, 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2017.
- The arrangement for reservation of backward classes in local bodies was made in the UP Municipalities Act, 1916 in 1994.
-Source: Indian Express
