In Brief
The Supreme Court examined whether Maharashtra's 27% OBC reservation in local bodies (Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis) was valid and whether election notifications providing for over 50% aggregate reservations for SCs/STs/OBCs were lawful. Following the Constitution Bench's K. Krishna Murthy decision, the Court held that OBC reservations are statutory (not constitutional) and require: a dedicated empirical inquiry into backwardness, local body-specific proportionate quotas, and cannot exceed 50% aggregate ceiling. Finding no such inquiry was conducted, the Court read down Section 12(2)(c) as enabling rather than mandatory, quashed impugned notifications, and ordered fresh elections for vacated OBC seats as general category vacancies. The petitions were partly allowed.">
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.