HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad HC on Monday directed the
Telangana government to ensure that reservation of seats in the forthcoming
gram panchayat and other local body elections does not cross 50% of the total number of seats.
A bench of Chief Justice TB Radhakrishnan and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan gave this interim direction while hearing a petition filed by V Swapna Reddy, a resident of Posanipet in Sanga Reddy
district, who charged the state with providing more than 50% reservations to SCs, STs and BCs in panchayat elections. “There is a cap on reservations at 50% imposed by SC and crossing this line would be a violation of the order of the apex court,” petitioner’s counsel Vedula Srinivas said.
The state is giving 34% reservation to BCs in panchayat elections under the provisions of Panchayat Raj Act, he said. Added to this are the statutory reservations given to SCs and STs. All these put together are crossing 60 per cent, he said. The bench too agreed with him and said that the upper limit of 50 per cent should not be crossed. However, the bench said, there is an exemption to this upper limit in case of reservations provided to Scheduled Tribes (STs) living in scheduled areas.
Special government pleader
Sanjeev Kumar referred to the ground realities in Telangana where the cumulative population of SCs, STs and BCs is 80% of the state’s population. “BCs alone constitute 52% of the population of the state,” he said. A single judge had asked the government not to go ahead with BC reservations without first enumerating the BCs, he said. The bench said that the state can enumerate but it cannot cross 50% upper limit. “This is the law laid down by the SC and it cannot be violated,” the bench said. The only exception can be the reservations made to STs in tribal areas, it said before adjourning the matter.
(Representative image)
