Bhubaneswar: In a groundbreaking development,  the  Odisha state Assembly has passed the Odisha Panchayat Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 amid a noisy protest by the Opposition BJP and Congress MLAs in the House. The Bill seeks to cap the reservation of seats in the three-tier panchayat system to 50 percent for all the three categories comprising STs, SCs and OBCs. The Bill amended relevant provisions of the Odisha Grama Panchayat Act, 1964, the Odisha Panchayat Samiti Act, 1959 and Odisha Zilla Parishad Act, 1991, Panchayati Raj and Law Minister Pratap Jena said while piloting the Bill.

As per Article 243-D of the statute, the state government has the discretion of reserving seats for OBCs and accordingly, the Odisha Grama Panchayat Act, 1964, the Odisha Panchayat Samiti Act, 1959 and Odisha Zilla Parishad Act, 1991 had to be amended to provide 27 per cent of reservation for OBCs in the elections to Panchayat Raj Institutions.

Likewise, the quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as per provision of the Constitution, has been fixed in proportion to their population in Odisha. In some PRIs, the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes exceeds  50 percent limit, he pointed out.

The Orissa High Court, in an order, had instructed the government in 2016 to set upper limit of reservation of seats for the SC, ST and OBCs and not exceed 50 percent in deference to a judgment passed by the Supreme Court in the K Krishna Murthy case.

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