Telangana High Court Update on BC Reservations in Local Body Elections
In Hyderabad on Tuesday, Advocate-General A. Sudarshan Reddy informed the Telangana High Court that it would take two to three months to complete the enumeration of Backward Classes (BCs) in the State. This is an important step for providing reservations to BCs in the upcoming local body elections.
The division bench, consisting of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao, took note of the information and postponed the hearing of the writ petition for three months. The petition was initially filed in 2019 by Jajula Srinivas Goud, the President of the Telangana BC Welfare Association. The petition requested the court to direct the State government not to conduct ZPTC (Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies) and MPTC (Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies) elections until the BC enumeration is completed. Furthermore, the petitioner wanted the State Election Commission (SEC) to refrain from issuing any election notifications before this process is done.
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Contempt Case on Ganesh Idol Immersion Closed
On the same day, a separate division bench of the Telangana High Court, comprising Justices T. Vinod Kumar and Jukanti Anil Kumar, refused to reopen a 2021 contempt case related to the immersion of Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) in Hussainsagar Lake. The bench declared that the case was “not maintainable” and officially closed it.
The contempt case was initially filed after allegations that the State government had violated court orders by allowing the immersion of PoP idols in the lake, despite previous High Court directions to prevent it. The petitioner, Mamidi Venu Madhav, had approached the court again to revive the case, arguing that the government had not followed through on its promises.
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Court Questions Delay in Filing Petition
During the hearing, the bench questioned why the petitioner waited until 2024 to file a request to revive the 2021 contempt case, especially since the Ganesh festival occurs every year in September. The court raised concerns about why the petitioner did not take action in 2022 or 2023, even though PoP idols were still being immersed in the lake during those years.
The court also expressed disappointment with the petitioner for casually filing five interim applications in the 2021 contempt case, which had already been closed by the Supreme Court. The bench emphasized that his request to reopen the case could not be accepted.
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Background of the Contempt Case
The original contempt case stemmed from a September 9, 2021 High Court order directing the State government not to allow the immersion of Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris in Hussainsagar Lake. Even though the case was closed, the petitioner sought to punish officers who allegedly violated the court’s orders by allowing the immersion of PoP idols. However, the Supreme Court had already closed the case after the State government gave an assurance that PoP idols would only be immersed in 2021, with a promise to stop the practice from 2022 onward.
The court concluded by reaffirming that the 2021 contempt case cannot be revived, and the petitioner’s plea was dismissed.
