New Delhi, May 7 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed local body elections in Maharashtra, held up on account of a challenge to reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) since 2022, to be notified and held within four months, while directing that the outcome of the elections will be subject to the decision by the top court on the pending challenge to the state law extending 27% reservation for OBCs in local bodies. A bench headed by justice Surya Kant passed the order after realising that the elections to local bodies were held up on account of a status quo order passed by the top court in August 2022. In the case of some of the local bodies at Panchayat and Gram Sabha level, there were no elections conducted for past five years. In an interim direction passed in the matter, the bench, also comprising justice N Kotiswar Singh said, "In our opinion, the constitutional mandate of grassroot democracy through periodical election of local bodies ought to be respected and ensured since elected bodies have a prescribed term and no irreversible damage will be caused." When asked if the verdict will apply to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, which last took place in 2017, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told HT that the judgement will apply to the Mumbai civic body polls. The court directed the Maharashtra state election commission to notify the local body polls within four weeks. As regards the contentious issue of OBC reservation, the top court order said, "The reservation will be provided to OBC community as existed in the state prior to the Bainthia Commission report." The court, on Tuesday, heard a fresh public interest litigation (PIL) by Mangesh Shankar Sasane challenging the Banthia commission findings. Issuing notice on the petition, the justice Kant-led bench remarked, "In our country, the reservation business has become like a railway. Those who have entered the bogie, they don't want anyone else to enter. That is the whole game." Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for the PIL petitioner, added that to this train they keep adding bogeys from the back. In 2022, the Banthia Commission conducted an empirical study and recommended 27% reservation for OBCs in local bodies; prior to this too, "political reservation" for OBCs in local bodies has continued since 1994, to the extent of 27% reservation. The computation was based as per the Mandal Commission report. Maharashtra election commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said the poll body will study the judgment to "to chalk out a plan for the formation of the wards, delimitations and reservation". "There is ambiguity over the polls in Mumbai, but we will get clarification. We will also take stock of resources including EVMs, manpower etc before chalking an action plan." Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab said that the ruling will lead to the end of "Administrator Raj" in local bodies across the states. "Today's decision of supreme court has cleared the way for elections in local bodies across state which were pending due to the OBC reservation issue. This will end state government controlled 'Administrator Raj' in local bodies. We are ready to face elections." Political leaders across Maharashtra hailed the court's ruling as they urged the state election commission to hold civic body polls soon. Fadnavis urged the state election commission to conduct elections soon. "I thank the Supreme Court for directing to hold the elections within four months. We will request the State Election Commission to complete the process promptly so that the elections are conducted on time. I am pleased that the Court has permitted the polls to be held with the OBC quota as it existed prior to the submission of the Banthia Commission report," he said, adding that the ruling Mahayuti will contest the elections together barring a couple of local bodies. The BJP leader later told that the elections to the BMC will be held along with othercivic bodies....