Supreme Court Rejects Telangana's Plea to Exceed 50% OBC Reservation Cap in Local Elections

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy (File).

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon rejected a Telangana government plea contesting the High Court's interim stay on expanded reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities beyond the 50 percent cap established by the top court's landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment.

The state argued that increasing quotas - implementing 42 percent reservation for OBCs in local body elections, which would raise overall quotas to 67 percent - constitutes 'a policy decision'.

"... a unanimous resolution of all parties supports this policy. How can it be stayed without pleadings? Barring the first few pages (of the High Court order), no reasons have been given for the stay," senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's government, argued.

"Who are these people (i.e., the High Court) to stay without even pleading... when it was passed unanimously by the legislature," he stated to Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta.

Regarding the contention that quotas would exceed the 50 percent cap, Singhvi maintained 'there is a misconception that the Indra Sawhney case established a rigid 50 percent cap...'

He contended the judgment permits exceeding this limit in exceptional circumstances.

From the opposing side, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan defended the High Court decision by referencing previous Supreme Court judgments on reservation limits.

"The order we challenged is one that increased reservation to 42 percent for OBCs... which takes everything to well over 60 percent," he stated, citing the 2010 K Krishna Murthy judgment delivered by a Constitution bench that affirmed the 50 percent cap.

The High Court order in question was issued last month by Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin, addressing petitions challenging three government orders - one mandating the 42 percent reservation and two others prescribing guidelines.

The High Court emphasized that the increase appeared to violate the 50 percent cap and referenced the Supreme Court's 'triple test' for such scenarios, which includes establishing a commission for empirical study and specifying reservation proportions based on research findings.

The third critical component stipulates that such reservation cannot exceed 50 percent of total seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBC candidates collectively.

The High Court determined that the increased reservation prima facie failed this test and consequently stayed all three orders pending a final decision on their validity.