Quota Cap Breach Casts Shadow On Maharashtra Local Polls; SC Says Results Subject To Final Ruling

The Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated that the final results of elections in 57 local bodies across Maharashtra, where reservations have crossed the 50 per cent limit, will ultimately depend on its judgment in the ongoing case concerning quota caps. The observation came from a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, sitting with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, which postponed the hearing on local body reservations to November 28.

The Maharashtra government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, sought additional time to consult the State Election Commission (SEC) on how to ensure compliance with the reservation ceiling. The bench had earlier, on November 19, asked the state to consider pausing the nomination process while the court examines the legality of granting 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, senior advocate Balbir Singh, appearing for the SEC, informed the court that elections to 242 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats, 288 bodies in total, have already been notified for December 2. He said that in 57 of these bodies, the 50 per cent cap on reservations has been breached. Taking note, the bench stated that the reservation structure in these 57 notified bodies would remain subject to the final outcome of the case.

At the start of the hearing, the solicitor general reiterated his request for an adjournment to allow further consultation with the SEC. Senior advocate Vikas Singh argued that previous orders, including a July 2022 ruling by a three-judge bench headed by Justice A. M. Khanwilkar approving the Banthia Commission’s recommendations, had caused confusion. Mehta added that state authorities had acted under a “bona fide interpretation” of the court’s directions.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising did not oppose the adjournment but informed the bench that some petitioners had also filed a contempt petition related to the May 2025 order. She defended the existing reservation arrangement, insisting that elections already underway should not be interrupted and pointing out that the court had earlier allowed the poll process to continue while making it subject to judicial scrutiny.

The Chief Justice remarked that the court retained the authority to nullify elections if they were eventually found to be unlawful, observing, “If elections are held contrary to law, they can be annulled.” Vikas Singh objected that annulling completed elections would result in unnecessary expenditure, urging the court instead to halt the process now. Senior advocate Narender Hooda described the 50 per cent upper limit as a constitutional “Lakshman Rekha”.

The bench also noted inconsistencies in the figures presented regarding the number of bodies exceeding the reservation cap and asked the SEC to provide a precise list. Local body elections in Maharashtra have been stalled since 2021 due to the dispute over OBC quotas. In December 2021, the Supreme Court suspended the quota, holding that it could only be implemented after meeting the triple-test requirement laid down in earlier rulings. This requirement includes the creation of a commission to study backwardness, identifying the exact proportion of reservation needed based on that data, and ensuring that the combined reservation for SCs, STs, and OBCs does not cross the 50 per cent threshold.

The state subsequently formed the Jayant Kumar Banthia Commission in March 2022 to collect empirical data for OBC reservation, and the panel submitted its report in July 2022. In May 2025, the court directed the state to conduct the long-delayed local body polls within four months and to grant OBC reservation based on the legal framework that existed before the Banthia report. Last week, the bench noted that authorities had misread this directive as permitting reservations above the 50 per cent limit and clarified that no such excess was allowed.

With PTI inputs