Andhra Pradesh files SLP in Supreme Court challenging HC judgment on BC quota in local body elections

A view of the Supreme Court of India. | Photo Credit: File Photo

The Andhra Pradesh government filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court on Saturday, challenging the High Court order dated October 1 on reservation for the Backward Classes (BCs) in the local body elections.

It said the dispute raised an important question concerning the scope of the enabling power conferred upon the State Legislature under Articles 243-D(6) and 243-T(6) of the Constitution and the manner in which contemporaneous empirical material gathered by the State was to be evaluated while determining political reservation for the BCs in the institutions of local self-government.

The government argued that the impugned judgment proceeded on the premise that the reservation exercise undertaken in the year 2026 suffered from essentially the same infirmity as the earlier reservation exercise considered by the High Court in the Birru Prathap Reddy v. State of Andhra Pradesh.

The AP Panchayat Raj Act of 1994 was enacted pursuant to the constitutional framework introduced by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, and Article 243-D(6) expressly enabled the State Legislatures to make provisions for reservation of seats and offices of Chairpersons in Gram Panchayats (GPs) in favour of the BCs.