SC rejects petition against Telangana order for 67% quota
POLITY – JUDICIARY
7 OCTOBER 2025
- The Supreme Court declined to entertain a petition challenging a Telangana government order enhancing the Backward Classes’ quota in municipalities and panchayats to 42%, leading to the total reservation of seats in local bodies in the State to touch 67%.
- A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, however, gave the petitioner, Vanga Gopal Reddy, liberty to approach the Telangana High Court against the September 26 order of the State government.
- The 50% ceiling rule in reservation was established by a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the Mandal Commission case judgment of 1992.
- The September 26 order issued by Telangana had followed an attempt by the State to enact a law, the Telangana Backward Classes (Reservations of Seats in Rural and Urban Local Bodies) Bill, 2025, to enhance OBC seats in local bodies by 42%.
- However, the petition said, the Bill had been neither assented to by the Governor nor by the President.
- Mr. Vanga Gopal had said the Telangana government’s order augmenting OBC quota in local bodies violated Section 285A of the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, which expressly codified the 50% ceiling in reservation in local bodies’ seats.
