Hyderabad: A petition was filed before the Telangana High Court seeking direction to delete the name of Mamidala Yashaswini from the electoral rolls of the Nagarkurnool parliamentary constituency and 82 Achampet Assembly segment.
She is the Congress candidate from Palakurthy.
The petitioner, Kampally Deva from Dindi Chinthapally of Vangoor mandal of Nagarkurnool district, stated that Yashaswini was an NRI and had stayed in India for about 5.5 months in the last five years because of which she is not eligible to contest elections.
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar heard the petition.
Senior counsel L. Ravichander, appearing for the petitioner, argued that a combined reading of Section 19 of the Representation of Peoples Act explained that the eligibility for registration of voters needed that a person, who is ordinarily resident in a constituency, shall be entitled to be registered in the electoral rolls for that constituency.
Section 20 also explained that a person shall not be deemed to be an ordinary resident in a constituency on the ground that he owns, or is in possession of, a dwelling house. In the given case, it would reflect that Yashaswini had acted in contravention of the provisions of the Act.
Senior counsel informed the court that as per Section 22(C) of the Act, the electoral registration officer can, after inquiry, delete the entry of a person from the electoral rolls, once the person has ceased to be ordinarily resident in the constituency or is otherwise not entitled to be registered in the rolls.
In the given case, the electoral officer did not take action even after an application was made to him complaining that Yashaswini was not ordinarily a citizen. Ravichander also explained that NRIs were given a chance to register to vote after filing Form 6A. Yashaswini’s voting rights in the constituency had continued since 2018 as she was an ordinary citizen.
The division bench, after hearing the contentions of the counsel for the petitioner, directed Deva to get instructions with regard to the date of publication of the draft electoral revised list and the date on which the final electoral revised list is published. The case was adjourned to November 15.
