The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Andhra Pradesh government’s plea challenging an earlier High Court order that had quashed two government orders allowing 34% reservation for Backward Classes in rural and urban local body elections.
The HC had quashed the government orders on the grounds of violation of the top Court’s judgment in Indra Sawney v. Union of India, which held total reservation for underserved groups should not exceed 50%. The HC had observed that the orders pushed the 50% ceiling on reservations and that the state failed to justify the reason for the breach.
In the current hearing, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who was representing the Andhra Pradesh Government, argued that the High Court’s rejection of the state’s data as unreliable lacked foundation.
To this, the top court observed that the HC’s order was highly reasonable. It asked Rohatgi to explain the error made by the HC in recording the data of the Unified Family Survey, on which the state had also relied.
“You show us this data can be considered. This is a Unified Family Survey, under law, is being made? Dismissed. Very reasonable approach by the High Court,” the bench of Justice Dipanka Datta and Justice Sheel Nagu observed.
