Bhubaneswar: Four years after Odisha dropped reservation for backward classes in panchayat and urban local body elections due to legal hurdles, the state govt on Wednesday constituted a commission headed by retired Orissa High Court judge Justice Pramath Patnaik to study the political backwardness of socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs), a key step towards restoring quota for the community in local body polls.A notification in this regard was issued by Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department following a decision by chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi.According to an official statement, the commission will study the population of SEBCs in rural and urban local self-govt institutions, their political representation and the extent, nature and implications of their political backwardness. The exercise is aimed at facilitating appropriate measures for ensuring adequate representation of the community in panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies.Apart from Justice Patnaik, retired IAS officer Bijay Kumar Prusti has been appointed as a member of the commission, while department special secretary Sujata Mishra will serve as its member secretary.The move assumes significance ahead of the panchayat elections due next year, tentatively planned for May. In December 2021, the Orissa High Court directed State Election Commission to conduct panchayat elections without backward class reservation after observing that the state had failed to furnish empirical data to justify the quota for them. As a result, the 2022 panchayat elections were held without SEBC reservation, and seats earmarked for the category were converted into unreserved constituencies.The reservation was withdrawn because the state had not fulfilled the Supreme Court-mandated “triple test” requirement. The test requires states to constitute a dedicated commission to conduct an empirical inquiry into the nature and extent of backwardness of backward classes in local bodies, determine the quantum of reservation based on its findings, and ensure the combined reservation for SCs, STs and backward classes does not exceed 50%.Though Odisha had constituted an Other Backward Class (OBC) commission in February 2020, it had not compiled the required empirical data. The state subsequently amended the Orissa Grama Panchayat Act, 1964, Orissa Panchayat Samiti Act, 1959, and Orissa Zilla Parishad Act, 1991 in 2021 following judicial directions on the issue.The state govt earlier this year provided 11.25% reservation for SEBC students in professional higher educational institutions, including engineering and medical colleges.