A vacation bench of the High Court directed the State government to resume the process of election to the Warangal District Cooperative Central Bank limited from the stage where it was discontinued.
The bench comprising Justices Vilas V Afzulpurkar and Challa Kodanda Ram dismissed writ appeals filed by the State government, represented by its secretary to cooperation, Registrar of cooperative societies and D Madhava Reddy, Congress candidate for the post of the DCCB chairperson, challenging an order of a single judge which declared the action of the government in postponing the election process as illegal.
The government orderered postponement of declaration of election result of office-bearers, when a meeting was called to elect the chairperson and board of directors to the Warangal DCCB.
The single judge on April 17 directed that the government shall give a fresh notice to all the directors, including the two persons who were co-opted on Feb 19, 2013, and fix a date for the meeting. The judge ruled that the elections should be conducted not later than two weeks from the date of receipt of the order.
The single judge pointed out that the law empowers the government or the election authority to postpone elections only in case of breakdown of law and order and any natural calamity that prevents the conduct of elections and where there is reasonable apprehension that the voters will not be allowed to vote freely.
Even for such a postponement, the government or the election authority shall pass an order specifying the reasons for postponement of election. The judge found that in this case, the authorities had failed to specify the grounds for postponing the election.