The Telangana High Court on Tuesday declined to stay the elections to the members of the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs).
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy refused to stall the election after hearing a writ petition filed by Telangana State Backward Classes Welfare Association but instructed the State to file counter within three weeks on all points raised by the Association.
The petitioner and the Association president Jajula Srinivas Goud sought direction to stay the election on the ground that the State had drastically reduced the reservation quota for BCs in ZPTC and MPTC members from 34%. It reached nearly 2% in some districts, he stated.
Constitutional validity
The Bench, however, assured the petitioners that it would examine the constitutional validity of the amendment brought by Telangana State to the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act which resulted in reduction of BC reservations quota.
The petitioner stated that BCs were getting 34% reservations in Panchayat Raj bodies before the amendment was made to the Act. The State brought in this amendment after the Supreme Court judgement that imposed an upper ceiling of 50% on quotas for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and BCs. The petitioner’s counsel K.G. Krishna Murthy told the court that the government had provided reservations to the SCs and STs in proportion to their population based on 2011 Census. However, the BCs were being given reservations after excluding the reservations for the SCs and the STs. The State had not also responded to the HC order to enumerate population of BCs before conducting elections to PR bodies. Even contempt of court petitions were filed against the government on this issue but the latter did not file counter till now, the counsel said.
