UP: HC puts local body polls’ notification on hold till Wednesday

LUCKNOW, Uttar Pradesh: The Allahabad High Court extended its order restraining the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission from issuing notification regarding local body polls till Wednesday. 

The Lucknow bench of the state High Court was hearing a petition stating that the reservation process for Other Backward Classes (OBC) was not followed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh while fixing quotas in urban local bodies.

On Tuesday, the state government asked for a day from the bench to submit its reply, which was accepted by Justice D K Upadhyay, heading the Lucknow bench. 

The petitions challenged the December 5 notification of the state government regarding quota reservation, against which complaints could be submitted till Monday. The petitioners argued that the reservation exercise was carried out in contravention of the order of the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, objecting to the plea, the state government argued that the petitioners could submit their objections in pursuance of the government notification. Therefore, it is premature to file petitions at this stage, and it would only delay the election process, which is against the principles of the democratic setup of municipalities.

While passing the order, the bench said, “Prima facie, what we feel is that in case the state government had any intention to conduct the elections as per the mandate of the Supreme Court in the case of Suresh Mahajan, it would not have […] included the seats reserved for the OBC even in the draft order notified by the impugned notification of Dec 5, 2022.” 

They also extended the deadline to raise objections against the notification to the state government till Monday, December 19.