VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday stayed the ward reorganisation process in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and Machilipatnam Municipal Corporation (MMC) , while directing the State government to file detailed counters in the matter.
Justice Tuhin Kumar issued interim orders and adjourned the hearing to next month.
The court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the State government’s move to undertake ward redivision in the two municipal corporations. The petitions were filed separately by Visakhapatnam residents Narasimha Pratap Bhagavatula and Pulivarthi Geetha, along with Machilipatnam residents Mohammad Khaleelur Rahman, Meer Mohammad Sayeed, Mareedu Nagaraj and others.
Senior counsel K. Srinivasa Murthy and advocate Sripathi Raviteja, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the ward reorganisation exercise was illegal as the Census 2027 process had already commenced. They informed the court that the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under the Union Home Ministry had issued a circular on August 13 last year indicating the start of the census process. The petitioners contended that ward boundaries were required to be frozen by Dec 31, 2025, making any fresh reorganisation legal.