News Brief
Setback For Telangana Government As Supreme Court Declines To Stay HC Order Halting 42 Per Cent OBC Quota In Local Body Polls
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The Supreme Court of India. (File Photo)
The Supreme Court on Thursday (16 October) refused to interfere with a Telangana High Court order that had stayed two government orders enhancing the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota in municipalities and panchayats to 42 per cent, The Hindu reported.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta clarified that it could not adopt a view inconsistent with earlier Constitution Bench rulings capping total reservations in local bodies at 50 per cent.
However, it allowed the state to conduct local body elections without implementing the proposed hike in OBC quotas.
Addressing senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the state, the bench said, “You may continue with your elections… [State’s appeal] dismissed. This will not prevent the High Court from deciding the matter on its own merits.”
The Telangana government had challenged the High Court’s 9 October order, which had stayed the enhancement of OBC quotas.
The High Court noted that raising the quota to 42 per cent would have pushed total reservations, including 15 per cent for Scheduled Castes and 10 per cent for Scheduled Tribes, to 67 per cent, exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling.
The court had clarified that the elections could proceed while capping reservations at 50 per cent. Polling is scheduled for 23 and 27 October.
He told the bench, “It is a policy decision by the elected government to benefit marginalised classes. How can it be stayed without pleadings? Barring the first few pages, no reasons have been given for the stay.”
He also cited the 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, suggesting that the 50 per cent limit could be exceeded in exceptional circumstances.
Opposing the plea, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan stressed that the High Court’s interim stay was based on established constitutional principles and prior Supreme Court rulings, including the 2021 Vikas Kishanrao Gawali case, reaffirming the 50 per cent ceiling.
The bench observed, “You cannot expect us to take a view different from the Constitution Bench about the 50 per cent ceiling,” and dismissed the appeal, declining to consider Singhvi’s request to revisit the 50 per cent limit.
