Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Against Telangana’s 42% OBC Quota in Local Bodies

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a petition challenging the Telangana government’s decision to increase reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in municipalities and panchayats to 42 percent. With this change, the total reservation in local bodies has gone up to 67 percent.

A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta permitted the petitioner, Vanga Gopal Reddy, to withdraw the plea and approach the Telangana High Court for appropriate relief.

“Counsel for the petitioner, upon instructions, states that he may be allowed to withdraw the petition under Article 32, leaving it open to approach the jurisdictional High Court for suitable reliefs. The petition is accordingly dismissed with liberty as prayed,” the Court said.

The petition had challenged a recent administrative order by the State government granting 42 percent reservation to OBCs in local body elections. Following this order, the Telangana State Election Commission announced the schedule for rural local body polls, to be conducted in five phases from October 9 to November 11.

The petitioner argued that the move violated the 50 percent ceiling on reservations set by the Supreme Court in earlier judgments regarding quotas in local governance.

During the hearing, Justice Vikram Nath questioned the petitioner’s decision to approach the Supreme Court directly under Article 32 instead of first moving the High Court. The counsel responded that similar petitions had been heard by the Supreme Court previously.

However, Justice Nath clarified that previous acceptance of such pleas did not automatically justify invoking the Court’s original jurisdiction under Article 32.

The petitioner’s counsel also informed the Bench that while the High Court had scheduled the matter for hearing on October 8, it had declined to grant interim relief in related petitions.

To this, Justice Mehta observed, “If the High Court doesn’t grant a stay, does that mean you will come here under Article 32?”

Following this exchange, the petitioner’s lawyer sought permission to withdraw the plea, which the Court granted.

The petition was filed through advocate Somiran Sharma.