Telangana high court refuses to stay panchayat polls as notification issued
M Sagar Kumar | TNN | Jan 4, 2019, 08:17 IST
(Representative image)HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Thursday refused to stay the ongoing effort to conduct elections to gram panchayats in the state.
The bench of Chief Justice TB Radhakrishnan and Justice A Rajasheker Reddy said this while hearing a batch of petitions that challenged the decision of the state government, which reduced the percentage of reservations to BCs in Panchayat Raj institutions such as panchayats, mandal parishads and Zilla Parishads. The state has reduced the BC quota from the earlier 34% to 22% and brought in an ordinace to this effect, which is under challenge in the current pleas.
State’s additional advocate general, J Ramachandra Rao, told the bench that the government tried to retain the 34% for BCs, but both the high court and the Supreme Court had earlier refused to accord that facility, and directed it to not cross the 50% upper ceiling on all quotas put together, imposed by the apex court. “As it is constitutionally mandatory to provide reservations to SCs and STs in proportion with their population, we had to do that,” the state counsel said. “We had no other option but to reduce the BC reservations to 22% in order to adhere to the 50% quota norm,” he said. “We left no stone unturned to retain the 34% quota for BCs, but we cannot cross the Supreme Court order,” he said.
He also reminded that the bench about an order of a single judge of this court, who directed the state to conduct the Panchayat polls within three months, and that deadline will get expired in the next one week.
Senior counsel, KG Krishna Murthy, who appeared for two BC associations, said that the upper ceiling of 50% was not applicable to reservations in Panchayat Raj institutions. “It does not speak about political reservations at all,” he said. “The Supreme Court judgement only speaks about reservations in employment and education sectors,” he said. “In fact in 2013, when an AP MLA Nimmaka Jayaraj knocked the Supreme Court door, the apex court had made it clear that this restriction on crossing 50% reservations was not applicable to political space for BCs in local self governance institutions like panchayats and Zilla Parishads. Accordingly, the state at that time provided 34% reservations to the BCs in panchayats and other local bodies’ elections,” the senior counsel said. “The state failed to bring this to the notice of the Supreme Court,” he said.
He was arguing the case of U Sambasiva Rao of Telangana State BC Maha Jana Samithi, and Jajula Srinivas Goud of Telangana State Backward Classes Welfare Association, who questioned the ordinance by Telangana, reducing the BC quota in local bodies.
The bench of Chief Justice TB Radhakrishnan and Justice A Rajasheker Reddy said this while hearing a batch of petitions that challenged the decision of the state government, which reduced the percentage of reservations to BCs in Panchayat Raj institutions such as panchayats, mandal parishads and Zilla Parishads. The state has reduced the BC quota from the earlier 34% to 22% and brought in an ordinace to this effect, which is under challenge in the current pleas.
State’s additional advocate general, J Ramachandra Rao, told the bench that the government tried to retain the 34% for BCs, but both the high court and the Supreme Court had earlier refused to accord that facility, and directed it to not cross the 50% upper ceiling on all quotas put together, imposed by the apex court. “As it is constitutionally mandatory to provide reservations to SCs and STs in proportion with their population, we had to do that,” the state counsel said. “We had no other option but to reduce the BC reservations to 22% in order to adhere to the 50% quota norm,” he said. “We left no stone unturned to retain the 34% quota for BCs, but we cannot cross the Supreme Court order,” he said.
He also reminded that the bench about an order of a single judge of this court, who directed the state to conduct the Panchayat polls within three months, and that deadline will get expired in the next one week.
Senior counsel, KG Krishna Murthy, who appeared for two BC associations, said that the upper ceiling of 50% was not applicable to reservations in Panchayat Raj institutions. “It does not speak about political reservations at all,” he said. “The Supreme Court judgement only speaks about reservations in employment and education sectors,” he said. “In fact in 2013, when an AP MLA Nimmaka Jayaraj knocked the Supreme Court door, the apex court had made it clear that this restriction on crossing 50% reservations was not applicable to political space for BCs in local self governance institutions like panchayats and Zilla Parishads. Accordingly, the state at that time provided 34% reservations to the BCs in panchayats and other local bodies’ elections,” the senior counsel said. “The state failed to bring this to the notice of the Supreme Court,” he said.
He was arguing the case of U Sambasiva Rao of Telangana State BC Maha Jana Samithi, and Jajula Srinivas Goud of Telangana State Backward Classes Welfare Association, who questioned the ordinance by Telangana, reducing the BC quota in local bodies.
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