Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday stayed the local body poll notification, halting the election process over legal challenges to the 42% BC reservations.
The court heard arguments on multiple writ petitions that questioned the state’s reservation policy. After two days of hearings, it directed the government to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks. It also gave petitioners two more weeks to submit their replies, if needed.
The bench also approved all impleadment applications. The court said it would provide detailed reasons later.
State defended local body poll notification with census data
Advocate General Sudarshan Reddy argued that Telangana was the first state to implement BC quotas using empirical data. He told the court that no other state had such data.
The Advocate General cited Article 243-O of the Constitution to argue that courts should not interfere after election notifications. He said that while the 2011 census provided SC/ST data, it lacked figures for BCs. He added that the Centre had not held a census after 2011. Telangana had conducted a virtual census to support the quotas.
The AG also addressed concerns about the Indra Sawhney judgment. He stated that it applied only to education and jobs, not to political reservations. He argued that the verdict should not affect local body quotas.