The Government of Puducherry on Wednesday told the Madras High Court that it is “firmly committed” to provide reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) too in the local body polls. It said, a commission would be constituted in the next few days for collecting data regarding the political reservation to be provided to the OBCs.
Appearing before the first Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing the Union Territory, said the government would make an application before the Supreme Court within a week seeking six more months to conduct the local body polls.
Stating that the delay in constitution of the commission was because of the procedures involved in getting Presidential nod through the Administrator (Lieutenant Governor), he said, the government would request the commission to submit a report within two months and thereafter conduct the local body elections with due representation for OBCs.
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‘Unconstitutional’
The submissions were made during the hearing of three writ petitions filed in the court challenging the government’s previous decision to conduct the local body polls by reserving wards only for the scheduled castes and not for the scheduled tribes and the OBCs.
Senior counsel P. Wilson and A.R.L. Sundaresan termed the decision unconstitutional.
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When the judges pointed out that the elections could not be deferred indefinitely when the Supreme Court had ordered conduct of the local body polls in the Union Territory at the earliest, the petitioners chose to withdraw their cases and approach the apex court with their plea to ensure reservations for scheduled tribes and OBCs.
Accepting their plea, the Bench granted them liberty to approach the Supreme Court and extended an already existing interim stay on the conduct of the local body polls for a further period of two weeks to enable the petitioners to approach the apex court in the meantime and get their cases listed for hearing.