Govt order on BC reservation: One more petition filed in Telangana High Court

By Legal Correspondent Hyderabad: Another petition has been filed in the Telangana High Court challenging the State government’s decision to provide 42 percent reservation to Backward Classes (BCs) in local body elections through G.O. No. 9. The petition was filed by advocates C Shanthappa and S Lakshmaiah of Dharur village in Vikarabad district. The petitioners contended that granting 42 percent reservation to BCs as a single block was invalid under the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, which mandates category-wise allocation for BC groups A, B, C and D. They argued that issuing the G.O. without such division was arbitrary and unconstitutional. The petitioners pointed out that the Anantharaman Commission had classified BCs into four groups, and failing to distribute reservation accordingly would benefit only the dominant BC castes such as Munnur Kapu, Mudiraj, Yadava and Gowda, while depriving the most backward and economically weaker castes. They urged the Court to direct the Government to apportion BC reservations in local bodies category-wise as per Section 9(4) of the Panchayat Raj Act and to amend the G.O. accordingly before conducting elections. The matter is likely to be heard on October 8 along with previously filed petitions by B Madhav Reddy and others, which also challenge the same government order. Meanwhile, several implead petitions have been filed in support of the 42 percent BC reservation. MLC Teenmar Mallanna, Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao, Mettu Saikumar, Lakshmana Yadav, BC Intellectuals Forum President T Chiranjeevulu and others have approached the Court defending the G.O. They argued that the 50 percent ceiling on total reservations applies only to education and employment, not to political representation. They also pointed out that the limit was already crossed in the case of EWS reservations provided by the Central Government. The petitioners maintained that the present BC reservations comply with Supreme Court guidelines. All these petitions are expected to come up for hearing before the High Court on October 8.