Hyderabad, July 30: The prospects of holding elections in the immediate future to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation virtually disappeared on Wednesday when the High Court stayed the issuance of the poll notification on the ground that the basis for determination of backward class voters was “faulty and illegal.”
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan restrained the authorities from issuing the notification till the issues of categorisation of BCs into A, B, C & D groups and the exclusion of creamy layer were addressed. The Bench was passing interim orders on a batch of writ petitions questioning the pre-election process such as delimitation of wards and identification of the wards for various reserved categories. The government contended that the population figures of SC, ST and BC groups were compiled ward-wise. The petitioners said that the 50 wards reserved for BCs must be distributed among the A, B, C & D groups as was being done in the fields of employment and education.
Upholding this, the Bench declared that “failure on the part of the respondents to provide reservation in favour of BCs in this manner is illegal.” Mr. Justice Ramesh Ranganathan made it clear that the court was not deciding about the exclusion of creamy layer from the BCs for political reservation, but only interpreting the explanation (ii) to section 5 of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act.
–Agencies–