While hearing the case related to reservation in Maharashtra, the Supreme Court on Monday (November 17, 2025) warned that if the limit of 50 percent reservation is violated, it can also ban the local body elections. The court says that the total reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes (OBC) together should not exceed the cap of 50 percent.
The Supreme Court has given this warning at a time when the scrutiny of nomination papers for the civic elections is starting from Tuesday. The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was told that there are some bodies where the limit of 27 percent reservation for OBCs has been crossed, which is a violation of the Supreme Court’s order of May 6.
In the order, the court had asked the Election Commission to follow the OBC instructions given before the IJK Banthia Commission report in July 2022. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioners, said that elections are being conducted in the state on the basis of JK Banthia Commission report, in which there is 27 percent quota for OBCs. He said that if this happens then the reservation will cross 70 percent.
The Supreme Court issued notice on petitions alleging that in some cases reservation in local body elections in the state has reached 70 percent. The court said that the administration has misunderstood its order on OBC reservation in elections.
The court also said that the JK Banthia Commission report should be examined by the court. He said that the court does not want elections not to be held, but it cannot ignore the violation of 50 percent reservation. On the request of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Maharashtra, the bench has fixed the hearing of the case for November 19, but has asked the state government not to go beyond the 50 percent limit.
The Supreme Court said, ‘If the argument is that nominations have started and the court should stop its work, then we will stay the elections. Do not test the powers of this court. The bench said, ‘We never intended to exceed the 50 percent reservation limit set by the Constitution Bench. We cannot do this sitting on a bench of two judges. The Banthia Commission report is still pending in the court, we had given permission to conduct elections as per the earlier status.
SG Tushar Mehta said that the last date for filing nominations is Monday and cited the Supreme Court’s May 6 order, which had paved the way for holding the elections. Justice Bagchi said, ‘We were fully aware of the situation. We had indicated that the pre-Banthiya situation may continue, but does this mean that there will be a 27 per cent discount for everyone? If so, then our direction is contrary to the previous order of this court. This would mean that this order would be contrary to the other order.