Telangana High Court gives state 10 days over claims on municipal wards

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has given 10 days to the state government to submit its rejoinder on the contentions of the petitioners that the state had not followed due procedure in the division of wards and on the claim of three Members of Parliament that they were not informed about the division of wards in some Municipalities.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy was dealing with two PILs filed by Anju Kumar Reddy, an advocate from Nirmal and another by Dr. S. Malla Reddy from Malkajgiri district, alleging that the state government had abused its power in the division of wards in 132 municipalities and three municipal corporations in the state and they sought a stay on issuance of municipal election notification.

The petitioners submitted the rejoinder by disagreeing with the state government’s claim that it followed the Rules of Telangana Municipalities Act.

The petitioners also placed the affidavit of the three MPs saying they were not informed about the division of Wards under Rule 7 of the Act, which ought to have been followed by the municipal commissioners concerned to take the opinion and suggestions of the MPs and other public representatives.

Mr. A. Sanjeev Kumar, Special Counsel, informed the court that the government required a week’s time to go through all the affidavits of the MPs and rejoinder affidavits of the petitioners.

Accordingly, the Court adjourned the PILs to September 9, 2019 to enable the state to reply.