NEW DELHI: The Telangana government has approached the Supreme Court against a State High Court decision to stay two government orders which enhanced the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota in seats in municipalities and panchayats to 42%.
“Petitioner have implemented the reservation based on the will of the people,” the State said in its special leave petition filed on October 13.
Polling for Telangana local bodies elections are scheduled on October 23 and 27.
The enhancement of 42% in OBC together with the existing 15% for Scheduled Castes and 10% for Scheduled Tribes, would make the aggregate reservation to 67%, directly violating the 50% ceiling.
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“The High Court committed an error by granting stay on the Government Orders which have provided reservation for Backward classes in the local bodies election. There is no embargo per se on reservations exceeding 50%. There exists no limit within the constitutional framework vis a vis the permitted percentage of reservation,” Telangana argued.
It said the 50% cap was only a “general guiding principle”.
“As a rule of prudence 50% was set out, while permitting the reservation to go beyond the same in exceptional circumstances,” Telangana argued.
The 50% ceiling rule in reservation was established by a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the Mandal Commission case judgment of 1992.
“While 50% shall be the rule, it is necessary not to put out of consideration certain extraordinary situations inherent in the great diversity of this country and the people. It might happen that in farflung and remote areas the population inhabiting those areas might, on account of their being out of the mainstream of national life and in view of conditions peculiar to and characteristical to them, need to be treated in a different way, some relaxation in this strict rule may become imperative,” Telangana submitted.
Telangana further said it had done the ‘triple test’, and based the 42% OBC quota was decided after undertaking a “comprehensive and scientific exercise to determine the extent of reservation required for backward classes in local bodies”.
“A detailed Socio-Economic, Educational, Employment Political and Caste Survey [SEEEPC Survey, 2024–25] was conducted which revealed that Backward Classes constitute approximately 56.33% of the total population in Telangana which data formed the foundation for providing 42% reservation for Backward Classes. This exercise was undertaken as per the mandate of Article 342-A(3) of the Constitution,” Telangana explained.
The State had constituted a One-Man Commission under the Chairmanship of Busani Venkateshwara Rao, IAS (Retd.) to analyse the empirical data and the Commission, after thorough analysis, recommended 42% reservation for Backward Classes in rural and urban local bodies and the recommendation were accepted by the government.
Accordingly, the Telangana Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Rural and Urban Local Bodies) Bill, 2025 was unanimously passed by both the Houses of the Legislature on March 17 and March 18, which inter alia provides for 42% reservation for BCs in urban and rural local bodies. The Bill was sent to the Governor, who had reserved the Bill for the consideration of the President on March 30.
The Home Ministry had sought clarifications on the Bill and Telangana had answered on July 22. However, the Bill was neither been returned nor assented to this date.
