High Court hears arguments over reservations in local body elections, reserves the verdict

The high court on Thursday heard the petition about the reservations in the local elections filed by Birru Pratap Reddy in the high court challenging the reservation. The petitioner argued that 59.85 per cent reservation was against the Supreme Court ruling. At the same time, the government's advocate has recalled the Supreme Court's comment stating that the government has the power to increase the reservations in rare cases. However, the court has reserved its verdict.

Recently, the Supreme Court has imposed a ban on GO 176 issued by the AP government, providing a reservation of 59.85% in local bodies elections. Birru Pratap Reddi and BC Ramanjaneyulu challenged in their lawsuit that the AP government had violated the ruling issued by the Supreme Court's in 2010 on the reservations.

A bench of Justices SA Bobdey, Justice BR Gawai and Justice Surya Kant had issued the stay order on the proceedings. The writ petition filed by the AP High Court in this regard has been ordered to be heard within four weeks. Against this backdrop, the High Court has taken up the trial and reserved its verdict.