Telangana High Court stays Bhainsa polls

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court issued interim stay orders directing election officers not to conduct polls in the Bhainsa municipality, Nirmal district, until the due process is followed in the division and delimitation of wards.

Justice P. Naveen Rao was dealing with a petition by Mr Kapil Shinde, a resident of  Bhainsa, challenging the publication of the draft notification issued on July 2 by the municipal administration department, alleging that the division of the municipality into wards under the impugned draft publication was in direct contravention of the Telangana Municipalities Act and Rules. He asked the court to set aside the draft publication and direct the election officer to undertake the entire exercise once again in strict accordance with the rules.

Mr Chinnolla Naresh Reddy, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that as per the rules, the final publication of the wards by the competent authority ought to have been published only after considering objections.

The officers had not considered the petitioner`s objections regarding the division of wards and published the final one without following due procedure, counsel told the court. He added that based on the final publication, the authorities are going to the release election notification on 15 July.

The bench examined the objections raised by the petitioner who brought to the notice of the court the failure of the authorities during delimitation of wards in ensuring that the population in all wards was approximately equal and the voting strength uniform with a variation of not more than 10 percent from one ward to another. This, he alleged, was to favor one particular political party and Mr Mohammed Jabir Ahmed, previous chairman of the Bhainsa municipality.

Considering the contentions, the court issued an interim stay and issued notices to the official respondents to explain their contentions on the petition.