The Telangana State Election Commission (TEC) has suspended the Gram Panchayat and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) elections after the state high court passed an interim stay order enhancing reservations to Backward Classes (BC) to 42 per cent yesterday.

 

 

The SEC has passed the requisite gazette notifications, putting the local body elections in abeyance. The local body polls were slated to begin from the 23rd, and nominations were in fact began yesterday.

 

 

The state government has been given four weeks to file a counter-affidavit and the petitioners have been asked to file a response to the government’s affidavit in two weeks thereafter. The decision comes after two days of arguments in the High Court, where the petitioners had challenged the legality of the total reservations being increased to 67 per cent for the Telangana local body elections, in violation of the Supreme Court’s cap of 50 per cent.

 

 

After the state cabinet decided to implement 42 per cent reservations for Backward Classes (BC), the government issued an order last month to implement it in view of the Telangana local body elections. This was done despite the bill related to it still waiting for the President of India’s assent.

 

 

As per the Government Order, the Telangana government decided to implement the order based on the one-man commission’s recommendations to have more adequate political representation for BC communities.