Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has stayed the panchayat election of Mahamoodpatnam village in Kesamudram mandal of Warangal district, after finding irregularities in the reservation of posts based on outdated census data.
Justice T Madhavi Devi issued interim orders halting the election until a decision is taken on representations submitted regarding the issue. The stay came in response to a lunch motion petition filed by Mittagadupula Yakoob, challenging the allocation of the Sarpanch post to an ST woman.
Petitioner’s arguments
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Ramesh Chilla argued that the authorities reserved the Sarpanch post and three wards for the Scheduled Tribes even though the 2025 voters’ list showed only six ST voters in the village.
Out of 576 total voters, he said, there were 250 Scheduled Castes, 300 Backward Classes, and over 20 from the Open Category. He contended that the reservation was made based on the 2011 Census instead of the current electoral list.
The counsel further pointed out that though the earlier notification had earmarked the seat for an SC woman under the general category, officials later reallocated it to the ST category. He added that the representations submitted to authorities seeking correction were ignored.
Justice Madhavi Devi, after hearing the arguments, adjourned the matter to December 29 while directing that the Mahamoodpatnam panchayat elections remain stayed until further orders.
Court defers hearings in several other petitions
The court also deferred hearings in several other petitions challenging the reservation process to Friday, noting that the dispute over BC reservations is already pending before the Chief Justice’s Bench.
State Election Commission’s senior counsel G Vidyasagar argued that reservations for SCs and STs were made as per their population share, and only thereafter were BC reservations considered.
He maintained that SCs and STs enjoy constitutionally mandated reservations, while others can be allotted quotas subsequently by the government.
The court stated that it would examine on Friday to which judicial intervention was required in these petitions.
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