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Regular-article-logo Sunday, 24 August 2025

Reservation quandary for Cuttack

The civic body here finds itself in the dock as it has violated the Supreme Court's 50 per cent cap on reservation of seats for urban local bodies.

LALMOHAN PATNAIK Published 19.06.18, 12:00 AM

Cuttack: The civic body here finds itself in the dock as it has violated the Supreme Court's 50 per cent cap on reservation of seats for urban local bodies.

The Cuttack Municipal Corporation has breached the Supreme Court's yardstick by a big margin as 69.49 per cent of its 59 seats fall in the reserved category.

The 41 seats that fall in the reserved category are for women belonging to various social groups, including those from the general category.

The issue of quota violation took centre stage when one Subash Chandra Biswal had filed a petition in Orissa High Court regarding reservation of seats for Rengali panchayat samiti.

While disposing of the case, Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi observed that the Supreme Court order "is binding on all concerned and the same, having been considered to be the law of the land, should be implemented in letter and spirit".

The order stated that in case the government allowed breach of the Supreme Court set upper limit of 50 per cent reservation, "the said action would be unconstitutional".

This high court order has put all civic bodies, including Cuttack, where the quota ceiling has been breached in a spot. To salvage the situation, the state government has recently moved the Supreme Court against the high court order.

Following the court order, there will not be any further delimitation of wards ahead of civic body elections in February next year. Similarly, the future of the present 69 per cent reservation of seats also remains uncertain.

Mayor Meenaksi Behera admitted that uncertainty prevailed on the quota issue. She said that much would depend on the outcome of the decision of the Supreme Court.

"A resolution passed by the municipal council on delimitation of wards and reservation of seats has been communicated to the state government," Behera said.

Cuttack municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra said the council had passed a resolution against further delimitation.

The municipal corporation was carrying out the delimitation job on the advice of the State Election Commission. The poll panel had asked the state government to complete the delimitation of wards and reservation of seats of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur municipal corporations by April 20.

The wards were last reorganised ahead of the urban body polls in 2014 when the number went up from 54 to 59 and the reservation status was changed according to the 2011 census for.

Housing and urban development department officials said the Orissa Municipal Act, 1950, governed urban body elections. The act provides for 27 per cent reservation for OBC candidates and proportionate reservation for SC and ST candidates.

Fifty-five of 103 urban local bodies in Odisha have quotas beyond 50 per cent. While the quota for OBC candidates has been capped at 27 per cent, seats reserved for SC and ST candidates vary depending on the local population.

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