Panchayat Election 2026 Process for formation of OBC Commission continues, Allahabad High Court disposes of PIL

Uttar Pradesh

After the Uttar Pradesh government informed that the process of constituting OBC Commission is going on for the purpose of conducting Panchayat elections as per law, Allahabad High Court disposed of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) related to this issue. This case came before the division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Abhadesh Kumar Chaudhary. The petition was filed by lawyer Moti Lal Yadav, stating that the proposal to constitute a six-member dedicated OBC commission is pending before the state cabinet, i.e. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, for more than five months.

The petition argued that unless such a dedicated commission is constituted, the state government cannot fulfill the conditions of the triple test laid down by the Supreme Court regarding OBC reservation in Panchayat elections. The petitioner cited the Supreme Court case Vikas Kishanrao Gawli vs. State of Maharashtra and others, in which it was made clear that fulfillment of three conditions is mandatory before giving reservation to the OBC category.

These include constituting a dedicated commission at the state level and conducting a contemporary and solid empirical survey, deciding the local body-wise reservation ratio based on the recommendations of the commission, and the total reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs not exceeding 50 percent.

The PIL said that if Panchayat elections are conducted on the basis of reservation list for the year 2021 without constituting a commission, it will be a violation of the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 and the directions of the Supreme Court. The petition also stated that the State Election Commission has already assured that preparations for the proposed three-tier Panchayat elections between April to July, 2026 are going on on time. However, the formal election process can be started only after the state government finalizes the reservation of seats.

The petitioner expressed apprehension that due to the delay in the formation of the OBC Commission, the Panchayat elections may be postponed till 2027. In such a situation, his program may be linked with the assembly elections. The main demand in the petition was that the High Court should direct the Chief Minister to immediately take a decision on the pending proposal of constituting a commission as the head of the cabinet. Along with this, citing Section 11A (2) of the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947, it was said that reservation of OBC seats should be done only on the basis of population data obtained from valid empirical survey. The High Court disposed of the PIL after the state government informed that the process of formation of the commission was underway.