VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday questioned as to how the government offices can be painted with colours resembling the ruling party at a time when the State is going for local body elections.
The High Court Bench of Chief Justice JK Maheswari and Justice N Jayasurya, while hearing Public Interset Litigations (PILs) filed questioning the government action to paint the gram panchayat buildings with YSRC party colours, had earlier asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to tell its stand on the issue. The SEC on Wednesday informed the court that it does not have any role to play as elections were not being held.The counsel for the petitioner maintained that apart from painting the offices with the party colours, the Panchayat Raj department had also issued orders to paint the picture of Chief Minister on the offices.
When the counsel on behalf of the government asked what is wrong in painting the picture of the elected Chief Minister on government offices, the High Court retorted saying that there are no pictures of Chief Justices at the Supreme Court and High Court and no picture of the Prime Minister at Parliament. The court also felt that having a picture of the Chief Minister at the government offices will influence voters during the elections.
Posting the matter for further hearing to Thursday, the court asked the government counsel to submit the photographs of the buildings with the party colours (of the present YSRC symbols and the previous TDP governments) before it.