Hyderabad: In a setback to the Telangana state government, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the government to issue notification to conduct elections to Panchayat Raj institutions only after completion of the enumeration of Backward Classes voters and after publishing the figures and reserving seats for BCs.
Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao, while dealing with two petitions by Congress leaders B. Ravindranath, Dasoju Sravan Kumar and Ayyorupalle Gram Panchayat in Karimnagar district, granted the interim order stating that the Gram Panchayat Rules 2007 relating to denotification, deletion, show cause, objections and re notification have to be followed pursuant to Section 295 of the Telangana State Panchayat Raj Act 2018.
K.S. Murthy and B. Rachna Reddy, counsels for the petitioners, submitted that the state government has initiated the process for conducting the elections to Panchayat Raj institutions in the state without counting persons belonging to the BC communities ward wise and not allotting seats reserved for BC category amongst the sub groups A, B, C, D and E.
They submitted that the Supreme Court has held that the elections to Panchayat Raj bodies be conducted only after a scientific survey of the voters belonging to BC communities and the state government has so far not conducted any such survey.
