Telangana High Court directs govt to conduct BC survey in 3-months for quota in local body polls

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to undertake a contemporaneous empirical survey within three months to come out with recommendations on reservations for Backward Classes in local body elections.

A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, issued the directive on a batch of petitions seeking implementation of reservations for BCs category-wise in local body elections, including in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls.

The bench cited a Supreme Court direction that states must undertake contemporaneous empirical inquiry to identify the “quantum qua” local body or local body specific before earmarking reservations.

The Advocate General submitted (before the Court) that the instructions contained “in paragraph 13 of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali vs State of Maharashtra (2021) 6 SCC 73 shall be implemented within a period of three months”.

The Court while issuing the direction to the state government also asked it to submit a compliance report. The petitions were filed by BC leaders Jajula Srinivas Goud, Yerra Satyanaryana, Dasoju Sravan Kumar and others.

The petitioners contended that the election notification for local bodies should be issued only after the survey is conducted. In 2021, the Telangana government designated the BC Commission as “Dedicated Commission” and gave powers to it to conduct the empirical survey, BC Commission sources said.

Inputs from PTI