India, Oct. 9 -- The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Andhra Pradesh government's appeal against a high court verdict setting aside its decision to restore 34% reservation for Backward Classes in local bodies, holding that the October 1 judgment correctly found a lack of the empirical data required to justify reservation beyond the 50% ceiling.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu remained unimpressed by senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi's submissions that the state's decision was backed by demographic and empirical material, pointing out that the high court had examined the government's arguments in detail before concluding that the exercise did not meet the requirements laid down by the Supreme Court.

The bench underlined...