HYDERABAD: A bench of the Telangana High Court on Friday partly modified an interim order directing the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to place ward-wise population data and maps in the public domain, restricting the requirement only to the wards concerned with the petitioner.
The bench, comprising Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya and Justice Gadi Praveen Kumar, set aside the earlier direction to publish details relating to all 300 GHMC wards, issued by a single judge on December 17, 2025, in a batch of writ petitions challenging the GHMC’s ward delimitation notification.
The bench was hearing a writ appeal filed by the state government, represented by the chief secretary, and the GHMC, represented by its commissioner, against the interim directions passed in connection with the preliminary delimitation notification issued on December 12, 2025 and published in the Telangana Gazette.
The single judge had directed the authorities to upload ward-wise population figures and authenticated geographical maps of all GHMC wards within 24 hours. The petitioner had sought a declaration that the preliminary notification was illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional, and in violation of the Telangana Municipal Corporation (Delimitation of Wards) Rules, 1996, and the GHMC Act, along with a plea to set aside the notification.
Challenging the interim order, the GHMC commissioner argued that the writ petition itself was not maintainable in view of Article 243(ZG) of the Constitution, which bars judicial interference in electoral matters, including delimitation. It was also contended that the petition was premature, lacked specific pleadings on statutory violations, and that the single judge had issued directions beyond the relief sought and outside the statutory framework.