Urban local body polls in Bihar were deferred on Tuesday by the State Election Commission in the light of the Patna High Court declaring "illegal" reservation of seats for Other Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Classes.
In a circular issued late in the evening, the secretary of the state poll panel informed all the district magistrates that both phases of the elections, scheduled on October 10 and October 20, stand deferred.
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"New dates of polls will be notified in due course,” said the circular, which also quoted the operative portion of the high court order, whereby the SEC had been directed to hold the elections "only by immediately re-notifying the seats reserved for the OBC category, treating them as general category seats".
In the 86-page order, the SEC came in for sharp criticism and was asked to review its functioning as an autonomous and independent body, "not bound by the dictates of the Government of Bihar".