OBC reservation in UP urban local body polls: Allahabad HC to hear case on Saturday

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court will hear the case related to urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh on the first day of its winter vacation on Saturday. The bench on Friday could not hear arguments on the issue of reservation for Other Backward Classes OBC in the urban local body elections.

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court will hear the case related to urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh on the first day of its winter vacation on Saturday. The bench on Friday could not hear arguments on the issue of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the urban local body elections. While giving its order on petitions pertaining to the elections, a bench of Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Saurabh Lavania said the stay on issuing notification for the polls would continue till Saturday.

While the high court breaks for winter vacation from Saturday, the court said it would hear the case during the vacation as the matter pertained to local bodies' elections and democracy.

The court ordered to present the petitions at 10.15 am on Saturday after taking permission from the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court or the senior Justice of the Lucknow bench.

The Lucknow bench is hearing petitions challenging the OBC reservation prepared on the basis of a rapid survey by the government.

The petitioners plead that in compliance of the apex court order, the state government must follow the triple test formula to constitute a dedicated commission to study the political backwardness of OBC in the state and then fix reservation. Whereas the state government pleaded that it conducted the rapid survey which is as good as that of the triple test formula suggested by the Supreme Court.