Context: Recently, the Supreme Court declined to recall its month-old orders quashing 27% OBC quota in panchayat polls in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Key Observation

• In terms of the constitutional amendment for insertion of Article 342A(3) in the Constitution, the state/UT is obliged to prepare a list of SEBCs which can be acted upon for providing reservation to OBCs including in elections to local governments. 
• However, that list will be independent of the Census work undertaken by the Union government under the Census Act. 
• The list to be prepared by States/UTs concerning the SEBCs, in terms of Article 342A(3) of the Constitution which came into force from August 19, 2021, would be independent of the Census to be carried out by the Union government."

The Supreme court verdict

• It stated that no state or Union territory can be permitted to hold local body elections with 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) without empirical data on the population and representation of OBCs.
• Currently, there is no provision to provide quotas to OBCs in local body elections, which only have seats set aside for scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs), apart from women.
• It clarified that states cannot rely on OBC population.

All states and Union territories (UTs) will have to complete the exercise of gathering empirical data, which will then be examined by the dedicated state commissions.

• The purpose of determining the quantum of OBC quota in local body elections is reflected in the census conducted by the central government.
• It directed that the state election commission (SEC) will have to notify all OBC seats as open category seats for future elections to local bodies if states and UTs fail to satisfy the triple conditions laid down by the top court.

Further,

• The bench said if there is a panchayat poll in future and the commission has not yet given any recommendation, or the state has not relied upon the recommendations of the commission, then there cannot be any reservation for the other backward classes in the local body elections. 
• "If there is an election, it has to be as per the SC judgment laying down the triple test guidelines," it said. However, it clarified that the states can act upon the interim recommendations of the dedicated commission for determining the quantum of OBC quota in panchayat polls.

About Triple test
Krishna Murthy vs. Union of India (2010): The constitution bench laid down a triple test for reserving seats in local body polls.

The three tests are

1. To set up a dedicated Commission to conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within the State; 
2. To specify the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned local body wise in light of recommendations of the Commission, so as not to fall foul of over breadth; 
3. In any case such reservation shall not exceed aggregate of 50% of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together."