The High Court records the State’s line that no local-body notification will issue before 2 September, and asks for an affidavit to justify 34 per cent Backward Class quota.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday, 25 August 2026, asked the State government to explain the basis on which it seeks to justify 34 per cent reservation for Backward Classes in local-body elections and to file an affidavit with all details in support of its decision. A Bench of Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice Challa Gunaranjan recorded the government’s submission that no election notification would be issued before the next date of hearing, asked for the affidavit, and posted further hearing to 2 September 2026. Form B is not notified. Two September is a High Court listing. It is not a State Election Commission gazette.

Advocate Thandava Yogesh — also printed Tandava Yogesh — moved a public interest litigation challenging the government order providing 34 per cent reservation to Backward Classes in gram panchayats and 33.33 per cent in urban local bodies. Arguing as party-in-person, he contended that combined Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Backward Class reservation would exceed the 50 per cent Supreme Court ceiling, and that the enhanced Backward Class quota would take total reservation in local bodies to 59.85 per cent. Thirty-four per cent, 33.33 per cent and 59.85 per cent are the petitioner’s arithmetic on the Tuesday cards. They are not a Bench finding that the ceiling has been crossed.

The petitioner referred to an earlier Andhra Pradesh High Court judgement that, on his citation, struck down December 2019 government orders providing 34 per cent Backward Class reservation in local bodies, and said the Supreme Court declined to interfere. He sought interim relief directing the government not to finalise reservations until the issue was decided. That is the petitioner’s citation. It is not re-adjudicated on this card.

The 2019 history is not one history. A later public account writes that the High Court dismissed a 2019 petition by Pratap Reddy challenging a 34 per cent government order and that the Supreme Court upheld that High Court decision. That is the opposite direction from the struck-down December 2019 orders line. This desk will not merge a struck-down citation with a dismissed-petition citation. Both sit as counsel citations. Neither is Tuesday’s finding.

Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, for the panchayat raj and municipal administration departments, submitted that the 50 per cent ceiling was not an inflexible rule and that states could decide based on local circumstances; that reservations exceeding 50 per cent had been upheld in certain Supreme Court constitution-bench cases; and that no election notification would be issued before the next hearing. He sought time for a detailed affidavit. A later public account records government counsel saying the government orders were legally valid and seeking time for a comprehensive affidavit. Validity on counsel’s lips is not a Bench seal.

A Monday public account, used here only for government-order numbers, says the petition challenges Government Orders 1065 and 105 issued on 19 and 20 August, and that the petitioner asked the court to produce note files, legal opinions and records. That Monday card only had the Bench saying it would hear the matter on Tuesday. Tuesday’s recorded order is the lock.

What this card refuses to print matters as much as what it records. It will not reprint yesterday’s shipped viral urban-local-body timetable as if those dates were real. The State Election Commission’s Monday line that no decision on the election schedule has been taken is not contradicted by a Tuesday High Court listing. October-end remains an earlier High Court intention. It is not Tuesday’s gazette. Readers who want a Form B last date, a nomination day, or any poll date will not find those papers here, because they are not notified.

Amaravati holds the High Court. Form B is not notified. No rural or urban local-body poll date is notified.

Until the 2 September affidavit and listing write the next order, the public ledger is a Tuesday ask for the basis of 34 per cent Backward Class reservation in gram panchayats and 33.33 per cent in urban local bodies; the petitioner’s 59.85 per cent aggregate; a 50 per cent-ceiling argument kept as his; two opposite 2019-history citations kept unmerged; Government Orders 1065 and 105 of 19 and 20 August on the Monday number-card; a government submission, recorded, that no election notification will issue before the next hearing; and Form B still not notified. Two September is the next sitting. It is not a poll.