Supreme Court gives green signal for AP local body electionsKey orders on voter list and BC reservations – Supreme Court dismisses YSRCP petition

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has paved the way for the conduct of local body elections in Andhra Pradesh. The State Election Commission (SEC) has made it clear to the Supreme Court that it is ready to issue the election notification within the six-week deadline imposed by the AP High Court. A bench headed by CJI Justice Suryakant issued key orders in the case and directed that the elections be carried out without any delay. If the ‘Special Intensive Revision (S.I.R)’ process is completed by the time the election notification is released, the elections should be held based on the newly prepared comprehensive voters list. If the SIR process is not completed by the time of the notification, the Supreme Court has made it clear that the local body elections should be completed based on the current old voters list.

Supreme Court dismisses YSRCP petition : The Supreme Court has dismissed the petition filed by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) challenging the re-division of wards. ‘Why is the YSRCP facing the same trouble that the enumerators and the central government are not facing?’ the bench of CJI Justice Suryakant questioned sharply. It said that the malicious intention to deliberately postpone the local body elections is visible in this petition, which is against the public interest. 34 percent BC reservation GO cancelled – AP government in trouble The Supreme Court has upheld the AP High Court order cancelling the GOs issued by the AP government providing 34 percent reservation to BCs. The court, which dismissed the special leave petition (SLP) filed by the government, reiterated that the total reservation should not exceed 50 percent under any circumstances as per the limit previously set by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.

The bench questioned the government on what basis it had taken the Unified Family Survey into account, ignoring the recommendations of the special dedicated commission appointed by the state government in collecting BC data. With the Supreme Court giving clear directions, the State Election Commission is making rapid arrangements to release the official schedule for conducting local body elections in the next few days.