The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the forthcoming local body elections in Maharashtra to take place as scheduled. But made clear that the results would not attain finality until the Court decides whether the State had violated the 50 per cent reservation ceiling while fixing quotas for OBC candidates.
The direction came during the hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the newly notified OBC reservation matrix of Maharashtra. It came on the basis of findings made by the Banthia Commission. The petitioners said the State has breached the Supreme Court-mandated cap on the total reservations for SCs, STs, and the communities falling under the OBC category. The case — Rahul Ramesh Wagh vs State of Maharashtra & Others — has now been referred to a three-judge Bench for a more detailed examination.
Supreme Court Flags Possible Breach of 50% Cap
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard submissions by the Maharashtra State Election Commission. State SEC told the Court that the new reservation structure in many local bodies appears to exceed the 50 percent ceiling.
According to the SEC:
40 municipal councils,
17 Nagar Panchayats, and
2 municipal corporations
Have reservations for SC/ST/OBC groups beyond the permissible limit.
This numerical breach, if sustained, would amount to a direct breach of the earlier judgments of this Court, including the judgment of the 2021 Constitution Bench in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v State of Maharashtra wherein the earlier 27% OBC quota was+ struck down and the famous “triple test” had been introduced.
Elections Can Continue But Results Frozen Until Final Verdict
The Court struck a balance in that it did not grant a stay of the election process-a move which would upset the State’s electoral calendar-and yet it refused to allow such results to stand without judicial scrutiny.
The Bench, in its order, said:
The local body elections are to be on schedule.
The results for all such bodies, however, await the outcome of the case that breached the reservation cap of 50.
Even in cases of reservations within the limit, results will be provisional until the final verdict is given by the Bench comprising three judges.
This ensures continuity in the democratic process while protecting the constitutional principle that the quotas in local bodies do not exceed the prescribed ceiling.
What the ‘Triple Test’ Requires Maharashtra to Prove
The relevant legal question then is whether Maharashtra met the “triple test” as outlined in the Gawali judgment:
A dedicated commission is to collect data related to the empirical, local-body-wise backwardness of OBC.
The State should use the data to fix OBC reservation levels by the State, and not blanket percentages.
This is because the total reservation for SC/ST/OBC should not exceed 50% to keep the reservation within the constitutional threshold set by the Court.
To meet the first requirement, Maharashtra set up the Banthia Commission, which has submitted a detailed report with recommendations on the revised quotas for OBCs. The new matrix, according to the State, follows the triple test faithfully.
However, petitioners disagree. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, for the challengers, told the Court that the Banthia Commission relied on “unreliable methods” such as “surnames alone” to determine community distribution — a process she said artificially deflated OBC numbers.
ALSO READ: Assam polygamy ban sparks a deep social reckoning
Why This Case Matters for Local Governance
This cap of 50% on reservations has shaped affirmative action in India since the beginning of time. Rules are different in Parliament and State Assemblies. Local body reservations are tightly governed with mandates from the Supreme Court regarding maintaining the reservation cap. A judgment allowing quotas to break the ceiling would have a dramatic impact on future municipal and panchayat elections, especially in states with sizeable OBC populations.
On the other hand, a judgment sustaining the ceiling would ban state governments from increasing reservations beyond the constitutional ceiling. This is why the decision of the Supreme Court to refer the case to a larger Bench signals the national importance of the issue. What Happens Next A Bench of three judges will take up the case in the second week of January 2026, barely weeks ahead of the next round of local body elections slated for January 31, 2026.
Their ruling will decide on the validity of the Banthia Commission’s data; whether Maharashtra has applied the triple test correctly; whether the reservation for OBCs can exceed or it has to be strictly within the 50% ceiling; till then, the results of local body elections held in Maharashtra will remain provisional and the future shape of OBC representation in the grassroots governance system of the State remains uncertain.
FOR MORE: https://civiclens.in/category/politics-news-today-india/
About the Author
