HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to complete within three months the enumeration of Backward Classes (BCs) for the purpose of reservations in local body elections in compliance with Supreme Court orders.
The direction came after Advocate General A Sudershan Reddy informed a bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao that the enumeration of BCs in Telangana, as mandated by the Supreme Court in the Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra case, would be carried out within the stipulated time frame. The Supreme Court judgment in the Gawali case outlines the process for providing BC reservations in local body elections, a matter that has been a subject of debate in the state.
It may be recalled here that the Congress, while releasing the Kamareddy Declaration in November 2023 before Assembly elections, assured reservations for BCs proportionate to their population after conducting the caste census.
Directing the respondents to implement the SC guidelines within three months from the date of the order and submit a compliance report, the bench adjourned the hearing of the three petitions on the matter.
These writ petitions were filed in 2019 by State BC Welfare Association president Jajula Srinivas Goud, Telangana BC Welfare Association president Yerra Satyanaraya and politician Dasoju Sravan Kumar, seeking a stay to elections to ZPTCs, MPTCs and local bodies, including the GHMC until the BC enumeration was completed. The petitioners had requested the court to bar the Election Commission from issuing election notifications until the process was finalised.
Nagula Srinivas Yadav presented the arguments on behalf of Yerra Satyanarayana.