On tuesday, the Andhra Pradesh High Court ordered the state election commission to conduct the local body elections within three months. The high court bench comprising of Chief Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar said that the reservation policy in the panchayats shall not be more than 50%, hence ruling out the 34% reservations for the backward castes.

After hearing arguments of lawyers from both the sides, the bench came to a conclusion that the GO passed by the government in favour of the quota for BCs is not valid. They also mentioned that social and economic backwardness does not necessarily relate to political backwardness and the GO issued by the government of Andhra Pradesh was not in accordance with the reservation policy in the constitution of India. The high court also dismissed a number of writ petitions associated with this case asking for the inclusion of certain castes in the BC category and also pertaining to the exclusion of creamy layer.