Hyderabad: Telangana high court directed the court registry to place a batch of writ petitions challenging the reservation of seats for the upcoming gram panchayat elections before a division bench for a decision. Justice T Madhavi Devi passed the order on Tuesday while dealing with petitions filed regarding the reservation of sarpanch and ward member posts in villages where there is either no population or negligible population of the reserved category. The matter is likely to be heard on Wednesday. The petitions were filed challenging the govt notification issued on Nov 25, reserving posts based on the 2011 Census for ST/SC categories and caste survey data for BC reservations. The petitioners contended that in their specific villages, posts were reserved for STs or SCs despite the fact that there is no population belonging to these communities in those villages. Consequently, there are no candidates to contest, leaving the seats vacant. They sought a direction to conduct elections based on the current population rather than the 2011 Census, argued the petitioners. The special govt pleader argued that the govt is bound to consider only the 2011 Census data for ST/SC reservations and cannot alter this basis to consider the current population for making reservations. Recording the submissions, Justice Madhavi Devi observed that conducting elections in villages where seats are reserved for non-existent populations—making it impossible to elect a representative—defeats the very purpose of elections and democratic values. The court noted that proceeding with elections under such conditions would result in a “loss of public exchequer” with no purpose being served. While acknowledging that the Constitution provides reservations to ensure representation for historically marginalised communities, the court said these principles are defeated if there is no representation of the respective category. The court also observed that issuing a direction to reserve these posts for a different category would disrupt the roster system and have ‘wide ramifications’. Given the peculiar circumstances and the potential impact on the election process, the single judge directed the registry to place these matters before the division bench to take a decision.
