Andhra Pradesh: Supreme Court rejects 34% Backward Classes quota in local polls

What the Supreme Court decided

The Supreme Court of India has dismissed the Andhra Pradesh government's appeal against a High Court verdict that struck down its enhanced 34 per cent reservation for Backward Classes in local body elections.

On Friday, a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu rejected the state's challenge, describing the High Court's decision to quash the quota as "very reasonable". The top court ruled that the state had failed to produce the rigorous empirical data required to justify pushing total local body reservations past the 50 per cent national limit.

Why the quota was struck down

The dispute centres on two government orders issued in August, which set a 34 per cent quota for Backward Classes in rural local bodies and a 33.33 per cent quota in urban local bodies.

When combined with existing quotas for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, these measures pushed total reservations past 50 per cent. Under the Supreme Court's landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney ruling, vertical reservations cannot exceed this 50 per cent threshold unless exceptional circumstances are supported by clear empirical evidence.

Representing the state, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that the government's decision was based on a statewide "Unified Family Survey" that estimated the Backward Classes population at 50.42 per cent across Andhra Pradesh.

However, the Supreme Court agreed with the High Court's findings that a simple family survey does not satisfy the legal requirements. To exceed the cap, a state must carry out a rigorous, data-driven inquiry into the specific nature and implications of backwardness regarding local body representation, as established in the 2021 Vikas Kishanrao Gawali ruling.

An independent dedicated commission, led by a former bureaucrat, did submit a report on the matter on 14 August 2026. However, the High Court noted that the state government had not yet formally accepted or acted on its findings.

What happens next

The ruling is not a permanent block on higher reservations. The High Court has clarified that the Andhra Pradesh government remains free to revisit the quota levels once it has completed a proper, legally compliant data-gathering exercise.

Meanwhile, a separate three-judge Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and including Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, ruled on Friday that local body elections cannot be delayed due to ongoing revisions of the electoral rolls. The bench directed that existing rolls should be used if necessary to ensure the polls proceed.