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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the state government of Uttar Pradesh to upload the report of the U.P. State Local Bodies Dedicated Other Backward Class Commission providing the list of politically backward classes on the official website of Urban Development Department, Government of U.P withing four days. 

The bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manish Kumar was dealing with a writ petition filed for quashing a notification dated March 30, 2023 issued by Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department insofar as it related to reservation of seat of Nagar Panchayat Nighasan, District Lakhimpur Kheri, in other Backward Classes.

Through the present plea, the petitioner had also sought court's direction to the state officials to make available in public domain the list of politically backward castes, identified as OBC, for the purpose of local bodies election.

On April 5, 2023, the high court had asked the Additional Advocate General (AAG) to place before the court the report of the U.P. State Local Bodies Dedicated Other Backward Class Commission which was the basis for the impugned notification. 

On Thursday, the report was placed before the division bench, which was also informed by the AAG that the list of politically backward classes identified by the aforesaid commission would be provided to the counsel for the petitioner the same day. 

Additionally, regarding the prayer of the petitioner that the list should be put in public domain, the AAG said that although there was no requirement in law for providing the said report but if the court orders so, it will be uploaded on the official website of the Urban Development Department.

Accordingly, court ordered the report to be uploaded on the said website. 

The issue of UP Urban Local Body Election has traveled up to the Supreme Court. After Allahabad High Court's decision in December last year directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to notify the Urban Local Body (ULB) elections immediately without OBC quota, the state government moved the Top Court. 

The Apex Court, on January 4 this year, stayed the order of the high court and asked the SEC to complete its work by March. A dedicated Uttar Pradesh Backward Classes Commission was then set up to study the representation of OBCs in urban local bodies and the commission filed its report to the UP govt last month.

The Urban Local Body polls were then notified on March 30, 2023, by the SEC which also notified the reserved constituencies for the purposes of elections to the local bodies. The SEC sought objections from the aggrieved person by April 6.

However, the present petitioner, moved the high court contending that since the report of the OBC commission was not in public domain, it was impossible for him to file objection to the same. 

Case Title: Vikash Agarwal v. State of UP and Others