Telangana High Court Refuses to Stay Gram Panchayat Elections

Hyderabad, Nov 2025 : The Telangana High Court on Friday refused to stay the ongoing process for Gram Panchayat elections in the State, even as a writ petition challenged the government’s order on Backward Classes (BC) reservations.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh noted that the election process has already commenced and, therefore, cannot be halted at this stage. The court directed the State Government to file its counter and adjourned further hearing for eight weeks.

The petition was filed by the Madiwala Machadeva Rajakula Sangam, which questioned the legality of Government Order (GO) Ms No 46, issued on November 22, 2025. The petitioners contended that the GO enhanced BC reservations in Gram Panchayats without adhering to the statutory sub-categorisation of BC communities into BC-A, BC-B, BC-C, and BC-D. They also claimed that the government failed to disclose the complete empirical data from the Dedicated Commission Report dated November 20, 2025, which formed the basis of the order.

The petition highlighted that the Telangana government had sent a Bill to the Governor proposing amendments to Section 285-A of the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, to increase BC reservations from 18–22 per cent to 42 per cent. However, the amendment does not provide for sub-classification of BC communities, raising concerns about the effective implementation of enhanced representation.

According to the petitioners, the absence of proper sub-categorisation could result in actual BC reservations fluctuating between 18 per cent and 22 per cent at most, depending on ward-wise and village-wise voter composition. This, they argued, undermines the objective of increasing BC representation in local bodies.

GO 46 replaced GO 42, issued on September 26, which had initially proposed 42 per cent BC reservations. GO 42 is currently under legal challenge in the High Court. In its interim order last month, the court had struck down GO 42 but allowed the government to conduct local body elections provided that total reservations for all categories did not exceed 50 per cent.

The Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) has already begun preparations for Gram Panchayat elections, which are being held in three phases. Nominations for the first phase of elections in 4,326 villages and 37,459 wards opened on Thursday across the state.

As per the TSEC notification issued on Tuesday, elections will take place on December 11, 14, and 17 for a total of 12,728 sarpanch posts and 1,12,242 ward positions. Around 1.66 crore voters in rural areas are eligible to participate in these elections.

The High Court’s refusal to stay the elections ensures that the democratic process will continue despite ongoing legal disputes over BC reservations, while giving the government time to respond to the challenge regarding sub-categorisation and empirical data.