Identifying and fixing reservations now state government’s responsibility, SEC tells Telangana High Court on local body poll hold-up

The apex court had on Thursday declined to interfere with the high court’s interim stay on the enhancement of Backward Classes reservation in local bodies from 25 per cent to 42 per cent. While granting an interim stay on Government Order (GO) 9, which enhances Backward Classes reservation, the high court had directed the poll body to go ahead with the elections with the reservations as they existed before the issuance of the GO. The high court had also asked the SEC to declare the seats falling under the enhanced 17 per cent Backward Classes quota as general seats and proceed with the polls.

The division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin was dealing with a writ petition filed by one Renka Surender seeking to declare the suspension of the election process for the local bodies by the SEC as illegal. The petitioner also sought that the court direct the SEC to comply with its order of October 9 by converting the excess reserved seats to Open Category seats and proceeding with the local body elections by issuing a revised schedule in a time-bound manner.

On Friday, Senior Counsel G Vidhya Sagar, representing the SEC, said that the SEC has invoked Rule 6 of the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Conduct of Elections) Rules, 2018, as there would be a change in the composition of the constituencies. “The election notification is kept in abeyance and further steps are to be taken in terms of the orders of this court, in consultation with the state government,” the counsel informed the court.

According to him, under the current Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, the state government is now responsible for identifying and fixing reservations, a departure from past practice where the SEC had more direct involvement. This necessitates consultation with the state government to complete the reservation identification process in compliance with all court orders, including those on the constitutional limits of reservations.

Both the Senior Counsel for the SEC and the state government sought two weeks to obtain detailed instructions, especially regarding the exercise needed for identifying vacancies in line with the court’s directives. The court, while granting the two-week adjournment, said the pending writ petition “shouldn’t come into the way of rescheduling” the elections.

The Bench affirmed that the original court order directing that the elections be held under the un-stayed provisions “continues to be enforced” and must be acted upon by both the SEC and the state government. The matter is now listed after two weeks for a compliance report.

From the homepage

Is Delhi BJP govt playing with fire on crackers? The test comes tomorrow

‘Everyone regardless of faith or heritage, has the right to feel safe’: Australian Minister Anne Aly after anti-India protests

Last chance for Virat Kohli to figure out where his off-stump is