Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday said it would not permit holding of elections to urban local bodies in the state until it gets clarity that the the pre-poll process taken up by the state government was in accordance with the provisions of the Municipalities Act, The division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akhter was dealing with a public interest litigation filed by Mr K. Anuj Kumar Reddy from Nirmal, stating that the division and delimitation of wards and publication of ward-wise photo electoral rolls had been done by the state government in a hasty manner.
The petition claimed the entire pre-poll process was in violation of the rules stated in the Telangana state Municipalities Act.
The public interest petition came before the bench on Tuesday on the request of State Election Commission (SEC), which urged the court that it may be permitted to hold elections in the 69 municipalities where no one has raised any objection. In the 57 other municipalities, a single judge bench has stayed elections because procedure has not been followed.
Justice Chauhan refused to grant permission to the State Election Commission to conduct in those 69 municipalities. He said that during the pendency of the petition that challenges the entire pre-poll election process, it would not do to permit elections in some of municipalities.
Earlier, Additional Advocate General J. Ramachandra Rao supported the request of Mr G. Vidya Sagar, senior counsel for the State Election Commission, for permission to hold elections in the 69 municipalities where there are no objections.
The bench questioned Mr Ramachandra Rao for the delay in filing the state government’s response to the contentions of the public interest litigation, which ought to have to be filed before July 19.
The bench directed the government to file its counter affidavit to the PIL by August 9 and posted the hearing in the case to August 13.
