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Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 150Decided 4 Mar 2021
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 980 of 2019
Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Justice Indu Malhotra · Justice Ajay Rastogi

Background

Several writ petitions under Article 32 challenged Section 12(2)(c) of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, which mandated a flat 27% reservation of seats for OBCs, arguing it was unconstitutional because, combined with reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it pushed total reservation in several districts (Washim, Akola, Nagpur, Bhandara, Gondiya) well beyond 50% of total seats: contrary to the Supreme Court's earlier Constitution Bench ruling in K. Krishna Murthy v. Union of India. The petitioners also challenged specific State Election Commission notifications that had implemented these excess-reservation seats in local body elections held in 2019-2020.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that Section 12(2)(c) was not unconstitutional outright, but needed to be "read down": the word "shall be" (27%) was reinterpreted as "may be," meaning OBC reservation can only be granted up to 27% and only to the extent that the combined SC+ST+OBC reservation does not exceed an aggregate ceiling of 50% of total seats, as laid down in K. Krishna Murthy. It also held that before reserving any seats for OBCs, the State must first satisfy three conditions, setting up a dedicated commission to conduct rigorous, contemporaneous empirical inquiry into backwardness, specifying the proportion of reservation based on that inquiry, and ensuring aggregate reservation (SC+ST+OBC) stays within the 50% ceiling, none of which Maharashtra had done. Exercising its plenary power under Article 142, the Court quashed the election notifications to the extent they provided for OBC reservation beyond this framework, declared the resulting OBC-seat election results void (though decisions already taken by these local bodies would remain unaffected), and directed the State Election Commission to hold fresh elections for the vacated seats as general/open category within two weeks.

Lesson Learnt

Reservation for OBCs in local self-government is a statutory, not constitutional, entitlement and must yield to an overall 50% ceiling on combined SC/ST/OBC reservation: states cannot keep applying a fixed reservation percentage without first conducting a rigorous, updated empirical study (a "triple test") to justify it, and courts can even unwind completed elections using Article 142 powers when that process is skipped.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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