On May 6, the Supreme Court issued an interim order directing the Maharashtra State Election Commission to conduct long-pending local body elections, which have been stalled since 2022 due to ongoing litigation over OBC reservation. The Court ruled that elections should proceed based on the OBC reservation framework that existed before the July 2022 Banthia Commission report.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and NK Singh instructed the Election Commission to notify elections within four weeks and aim to complete the process in four months, with the option to seek more time if required. The Court emphasized that this order does not affect the merits of pending petitions against the Banthia Commission and that the polls will be subject to their outcome.
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20 May 2025
The bench observed that grassroots democracy and periodic elections are a constitutional mandate that must be respected. The current governance by bureaucrats in the absence of elected bodies was criticized, with Justice Kant pointing out the lack of accountability and improper policy decisions being made by unelected officials.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Maharashtra, agreed that elections should not be delayed. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, representing petitioners, supported the Court’s stance and opposed conducting elections based on the Banthia Commission report, which had de-reserved around 34,000 OBC seats.
Justice Kant reasoned that elections can proceed using existing data without causing irreversible harm, even if there are future corrections to the reservation lists. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayan, representing a 2025 petition, argued that the Banthia Commission failed to meet the “triple test” criteria for political reservation, as laid out in the Krishnamurthy judgment, and stressed the need to distinguish between socially/educationally and politically backward classes.
Despite varying views on how reservation should be determined, all parties agreed that elections should no longer be postponed. After hearing the state’s position in the afternoon, the bench formalized its order to proceed with elections under the pre-2022 OBC framework.
