High Court slaps notice on AP government over 60% quota in local body polls

Amaravati: Did the Andhra Pradesh High Court give its nod for holding local body elections? This is the big question that is being discussed in the state. According to one report in a section of media, the High Court had dismissed all the petitions filed challenging the local body elections and has given green signal to hold the elections.

It is also said that the government had already taken a decision to provide 60 per cent reservation to BCs, SCs and STs in local body elections and with the High Court nod, pending elections for the MPTCs, ZPTCs, panchayat sarpanches and other local bodies will soon be conducted.

But another version given by an advocate, who attended the hearing, said that the Division Bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court headed by Chief Justice JK Maheswari and Justice G Syam Prasad on Friday served notice to the State government on its decision to provide 60 per cent reservations to the BCs, SCs and STs in the local body elections.

It also includes panchayat sarpanches, ZPTCs, MPTCs and municipalities and municipal corporations. He told The Hans India that petitioner Kandeti Navin Kumar filed a petition in the high court challenging the decision of the State government to provide 60 per cent seats for BCs, SCs and STs in the forthcoming elections to the local bodies.

He pointed out that some of the sections in the AP Panchayat Raj Act give scope to the government to provide such reservations. He appealed to the high court to pronounce such sections unconstitutional and null and avoid. The division bench, which posted the petition after four weeks, issued a notice to the state government to file replies to the petition.