MUMBAI: Pre-poll data from urban and rural bodies in Maharashtra’s districts have shown that over 20% of municipal councils and nagar panchayats (city councils) have crossed the reservation cap of 50%. The information revealed by respective divisional commissioners from 290 bodies recently, showed 59 bodies had exceeded the quota up to 60%.

This came on the back of the State Election Commission (SEC) mandating that the reservation of seats for municipal councils and nagar panchayats, which govern smaller cities and towns, be finalized by the end of October.
The 50% cap on reservation came into effect following the Indra Sawhney and K Krishna Murthi verdicts of 1992 and 2010 respectively, which were ratified by courts several times. In 2021, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC) had directed the state government, while hearing the Vikas Gawali case, to comply with the triple test to ensure that the quota does not cross the 50% cap. The triple test implies that the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota should be on the basis of their population backed by empirical data.
Vikas Gawali, a former zilla parishad member from Washim, had pleaded that the provision of the quota in various Acts under which the local body polls were conducted were unconstitutional, as it was over 50% in local bodies.
Most of the urban local bodies that have crossed the cap are from 11 districts of Vidarbha, where 41 of 101 bodies have exceeded the reservation. The pattern has been repeated in 6 of 52 bodies in Marathwada. Five districts of western Maharashtra have stayed within the quota limits, which implies that reservation was well within the 50% cap ruled under Sawhney and Murthi verdicts. Two of 27 local bodies in five districts in the Konkan region have also exceeded the cap. In north Maharashtra, which has five districts, 10 of 49 bodies have surpassed the limit.
It has been observed that the OBCs have received the flat 27% quota, as specified by SC in its ruling in May this year when it ordered SEC to conduct polls to all local bodies in four months. The apex court had asked the election body to consider the OBC quota which existed before the Banthia Commission report was submitted in 2022. The commission’s data was on the basis of the triple test mandated by the apex court in its verdict in March 2021.
“The commission had identified the OBC population in each of the wards in the local bodies and ascertained the quota up to 27%. While in some wards in the absence of OBC population, the quota was nil, in many bodies it stood at around 10% and 15%. This would have reduced over 33,000 seats of the OBCs in various local bodies including gram panchayat,” said an officer from the state Urban Development Department (UDD), which conducted the pre-poll process.
Officials from the department said the Banthia Commission had ensured that the quota does not breach the upper cap. “The Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) receive the number of seats in proportion to their population,” said the officer.
Since the SC and ST reservations are based on their populations, the STs have got more than 7% reservation in tribal districts such as Nandurbar, Gadchiroli and Nashik. Similarly, in districts with high SC population, the general quota of 13% has been breached in ward wise reservation.
Suresh Kakani, secretary, SEC, said, “The body wise reservation was drawn at the local level by state administration and has been put up for the suggestion objections. The reservation has been drawn as per the court orders and expected to be finalized by the end of this month.”
“The three-judge bench had accepted the Banthia Commission data following the triple test mandate, but the two-judge bench, in May 2025, reversed it. The Banthia commission report was based on the empirical data, which had ascertained the OBC population at 39%. With the new SC verdict, the legal framework given to the OBC quota has been nullified,” Gawali told HT.