Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on civic body elections in Uttar Pradesh and said his government will cooperate in holding the polls within the apex court time limit while implementing reservation for the OBC.
The SC on Wednesday stayed an Allahabad High Court order that had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to hold urban local body polls by January 31 without reserving seats for the Other Backward Classes.
In its order on December 27, the high court had said that the UP government had not followed the Supreme Court guidelines on reserving seats for the OBC in local body elections.
The UP government had then appointed a panel -- also required under the Supreme Court guidelines -- and said it will hold the elections only after fixing an OBC quota. However, the panel's report was expected only after January 31.
"We welcome the order given by the Honourable Supreme Court regarding the urban body election in Uttar Pradesh," the CM said in a tweet in Hindi.
"The government of Uttar Pradesh will cooperate in the completion of civic body elections while implementing OBC reservation within the time limit given by the Honourable Supreme Court," he added.
Earlier in the day, a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha directed that the panel appointed by the state government will have to decide the OBC quota-related issues for the local body polls by March 31.
The top court permitted the state government to appoint administrators to run the affairs of the local bodies after the expiry of the tenure of the elected representatives.
The Uttar Pradesh government had challenged the high court order quashing its draft notification on urban local body elections. The HC had asked the government to immediately begin the election process as the term of the elected bodies was coming to an end.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had directed the state election commission to hold the elections by January 31 after transferring the OBC seats in the draft notification to the general category.
After the HC order, the opposition in UP had blamed the BJP-led government over the "anti-OBC" development.
