HYDERABAD: THE Telangana High Court on Thursday issued notices to the State government, State Election Commission (SEC) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), asking them to file counter affidavit in a petition challenging the legality and validity of Section 90 (1) of the GHMC Act, 1955, which enables ex-officio members (MPs, MLAs and MLCs) and elected ward members to become voters.
A division bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, passed this order in the petition filed by former MLA Eravatri Anil Kumar. Eravatri had submitted that importing 55 ex-officio members as voters for elections to the office of Mayor and Deputy Mayor was an exercise to defeat the will of the people. “There are 150 wards in the GHMC, and 55 ex-officio members, who can participate in the mayoral elections.”
While granting four weeks’ time for filing the counter affidavits, the bench posted the matter to January 4, 2021, for further hearing.