SC, HC Stay Elections in 25 Telangana Villages

WARANGAL, KARIMNAGAR:Ongoing legal disputes over village classification and panchayat formation have prompted the Supreme Court and the Telangana High Court to halt local body elections in several villages across Mulugu and Karimnagar districts.

In Mulugu, the Supreme Court issued an interim stay on elections in 23 villages under Mangapet mandal while it examines their legal status. The stay follows a challenge by non-tribal residents to a previous High Court order that classified these villages as Scheduled Tribe (ST) areas.

The petitioners, represented by advocate Vishnuvardhan Reddy, argued before a bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi that the villages were not listed in the 1950 Presidential Order that defines ST areas. They contended that the High Court had wrongly relied on a Nizam-era order to recognise them as tribal villages. The Supreme Court has temporarily stayed both the High Court order and the local body elections.

Petitioner Pujari Sammaiah told Deccan Chronicle that the Court directed the 23 villages not be treated as ST villages until further orders. The dispute centres on the legal classification of these villages and eligibility criteria for contesting local elections. The next hearing is scheduled for February 2026.

In Karimnagar district, the High Court halted elections in Ramachandrapur and Kurumapally villages of Saidapur mandal. The case challenged a previous government order that carved out Kurumapally as a separate panchayat from Ramachandrapur. The petitioners argued that the bifurcation violated election norms. The High Court agreed, ruling that the creation of Kurumapally panchayat was irregular and ordering its merger back with Ramachandrapur.

MPDO Yadagiri said the Election Commission has stopped the election process in both villages as their panchayat status remains under judicial review.