| 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. |
