The states, Country in North America

Bhopal, May 10 With the Supreme Court on Tuesday directing the states to follow the triple test it laid down in 2021 for reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local body elections, both the BJP and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh have supported the apex court's decision ahead of the state Assembly polls scheduled in 2023.The triple test involves the appointment of panels, gathering empirical data quantifying the extent and backwardness local body-wise, and ensuring the reservation does not exceed the 50 per cent ceiling.The apex court in its judgement directed the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission to issue a notification regarding panchayat elections within two weeks.Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in his response said the state government will file a review petition against the SC order to hold panchayat elections as well as on OBC reservation."We are yet to study the judgement in detail but we will file a review petition hoping that the panchayat elections are held with OBC reservation," Chouhan added while responding to mediapersons on Tuesday.The Supreme Court's order came in response to a petition regarding 23,000 unfilled panchayat seats in Madhya Pradesh. The seats remained vacant as the state could not fulfil the triple test.Earlier in December 2021, the apex court had directed the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission to re-notify OBC seats in local bodies as general seats and then conduct elections.Both the BJP and the Congress levelled allegations against each other over the OBC reservation issue, however, both the parties had reached a unanimous consensus not to conduct polls without OBC reservation in the state.A unanimous resolution in this regard was passed by the state Assembly in December 2021.A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, A.S. Oka, and C.T. Ravikumar took serious exception to the vacant 321 urban bodies and nearly 23,260 panchayat seats in Madhya Pradesh.The bench said such conduct is "bordering on the breakdown of the rule of law".The court directed the poll watchdog to notify the elections within two weeks.It made it clear that neither delimitation nor triple test compliance can delay the filling up of the vacant seats.The court said the seats must be represented by elected representatives after every five years as per the constitutional requirement.The bench said the triple test formula laid down in a judgment in March 2021 will be applicable to elections on all local bodies across the country and is binding on all states and state Election Commissions.Opposition Congress leader Arun Yadav said his party was apprehensive over the gross negligence of the BJP-led state government towards the OBCs.He added that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Chief, Mohan Bhagwat has spoken about "ending reservation" and accused the state government of depriving OBCs of their due rights.Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

The StatesFOLLOW

The states, Latest News

Udaipur, May 15 The Congress on Sunday adopted the Udaipur Declaration on the final day of its three-day ... ...

New Delhi, May 13 The Central government on Friday wrote a letter to the states and union territories ... ...

New Delhi, May 13 The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the states and union territories, ... ...

Bhopal, May 11 The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission (MPSEC) to start ... ...

New Delhi, May 10 A total of 50 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have earmarked for West ... ...

The United States has pledged to provide more than USD 800 million in new humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced in Brussels on Tuesday at an international donors conference for Sy ...

Lucknow, May 10 In a first, the Uttar Pradesh government will undertake the task of modernising over 2,000 ... ...

Bhopal, May 10 With the Supreme Court on Tuesday directing the states to follow the triple test it ... ...