The Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on BC’s objections

Supreme Court of India. File | Photo Credit: Deepika Rajesh

The Supreme Court has dismissed the Andhra Pradesh government’s plea against the Supreme Court (HC) judgment on reservations for backward classes (BCs) in rural and urban local bodies (ULB) elections.

The HC earlier this week set aside GO Nos. 105 and 1065, through which the government sought to provide 34% reservation to BCs in Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) and 33.33% quota in ULBs, saying they crossed the 50% threshold.

After hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the state government on Friday (October 9, 2026), a bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu dismissed the state’s appeal and termed the HC order in the matter as “very reasonable”.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the state, said there was no reason for the HC to reject as unreliable the data on the basis of which the state had determined the reservation percentages.

Justice Datta asked Mr. Rohatgi to explain how the HC erred in its judgment and the relevance of the Unified Family Survey data.

The Supreme Court said the HC had rightly held that the reservations were above the 50% ceiling prescribed in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India in 1992 and there was no empirical data to justify breaching the ceiling.

In a separate petition, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohan said the election could not be postponed on the ground that a special intensive revision of electoral rolls was going on and the existing rolls should be used if the situation demanded.

Published – 9 Oct 2026 13:33 IST