Supreme Court Mandates Rotating Reservation For SC, ST And OBC Elections In Upcoming Maharastra Zilla Parishad & Panchayat Samiti Polls

Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Tuesday amended its order regarding the provision of reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backwards Classes in the upcoming Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in the state. Therefore, the reservation will be implemented in a rotating manner in the upcoming elections.

In Maharashtra, the method of providing reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in the elections of Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti in a rotating manner was implemented as per the rules framed in 1996.

Also Watch

According to Rule 4 of these rules, the reservation was adjusted by reassigning groups after each election. The group or caste that received reservation in the previous election does not receive reservation in the next election. Therefore, no group or caste remained permanently reserved or permanently unreserved. According to this method, reservation was decided in all the Zilla Parishad elections of 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017.

After that, the state government issued new rules in 2025. Under Rule 12 of these rules, this election was considered as the ‘first election’. This provision created fears that the rotation system in the 1996 rules would not be considered.

Due to this, many petitions were filed before various benches in this regard. The Nagpur bench dismissed these petitions and it was challenged in the Supreme Court through a special leave petition. The Supreme Court disposed of these petitions on September 25, according to report by Loksatta. However, since the order mistakenly mentioned the rules of Madhya Pradesh, it was amended on Tuesday with the consent of the parties.

The Supreme Court has clarified in the amendment order that as long as the competent authority is providing reservation as per the directions mentioned in Rule 4 of the 1996 rules, there is no need to interfere in any way in Rule 12 of the rules framed for providing reservation in 2025 (which has been objected to). With this clarification, the State Election Commission is now allowed to provide reservation in the same manner as before in a circular or alternating manner. Now the role of the Commission will be important.

To get details on exclusive and budget-friendly property deals in Mumbai & surrounding regions, do visit: https://budgetproperties.in/