HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Thursday sought responses from the state government and the Election Commission on a writ petition seeking strict scrutiny of electoral rolls in the Fifth Schedule Areas during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision-2026 over the alleged inclusion of non-tribal voters.
A bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin granted two weeks to file counter affidavits on the petition filed by Adivasi Sena, represented by M Doulath Rao, and another.
The petitioners alleged that non-tribal migrants had been included in electoral rolls by manipulating residential records, contrary to constitutional and statutory safeguards for Scheduled Tribes. They sought scrutiny of all enumeration forms submitted under SIR-2026, deletion of allegedly ineligible voters, mandatory verification before future enrolment of non-tribal persons and training of election officials on the legal framework governing Scheduled Areas.
Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Ch Ravi Kumar submitted that repeated representations had been made to the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Electoral Officer, Telangana, seeking deletion of such voters and insisting that the SIR exercise comply with constitutional safeguards.
The petition alleged that the exercise was being conducted without complying with the Telangana Tribal Areas Regulation, 1359 Fasli (1949), the Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation, 1959, as amended by Regulation I of 1970, and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), thereby violating Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
The bench also heard two connected writ petitions filed by social activist T Amar Singh and another challenging the acceptance of the Telangana Family Register Certificate, introduced through GO Ms. No.172 dated July 25, 2026, as a document for voter enrolment during the SIR process.
