
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday said it cannot give any interim orders staying the decision of the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct local elections in February next year without examining the Supreme Court verdict on the issue. Hearing the petition filed by the State government seeking a stay on the conduct of local elections in February, High Court Justice DVSS Somajayulu asked the government to place before it the verdict of the Supreme Court on the conduct of local elections.
Government pleader C Suman informed the court that the SEC took a unilateral decision to conduct elections in February without consulting the government. The Supreme Court had made it clear that the SEC should consult the State government over the conduct of elections and the SEC had given a go by to the SC orders by not consulting the government. The SEC had just called the Chief Secretary to the office and informed her about the conduct of elections, Suman said.
Suman informed the court that the SEC, which had earlier postponed the elections citing coronavirus, has now decided to conduct the elections even as the spread of coronavirus is rampant. Suman informed the court that around 1.3 lakh polling booths have to be set up with at least three polling staff at each booth, totalling five lakh. Majority of these staff are teachers and they face the risk of Covid. Suman also informed the court that the State now stands third among the States recording the highest number of Covid cases and also pointed out that the Supreme Court had asked States to be on an alert in the wake of a possible second wave of the virus.
Suman said the SEC took the decision to conduct elections on the sole basis of 11 political parties giving their consent for holding the polls.Arguing on behalf of the SEC, senior counsel N Aswini Kumar said that the SEC has the power to take a decision on conducting elections. Intervening, Suman urged the court to issue interim stay orders on the SEC’s decision on conduct of polls or else the poll body will issue a notification, after which the court too cannot interfere. The court asked the government to place before it the Supreme Court orders and posted the matter for hearing to Friday.