HYDERABAD: Paving way for the conduct of municipal elections in the State, a division bench of High Court on Tuesday dismissed the PILs filed seeking a stay on issuance of notification for holding elections to municipalities and municipal corporations. Most importantly, the petitioners have failed to show a single case of misidentification or non-identification of an SC, ST, BC or woman voter before the court and their allegations were vague without any cogent evidence, the bench pointed out.
The bench, however, made it clear to the State government that it has to clear the hurdles which were prevented from holding the municipal elections in the writ petitions pending before the single judge who granted a stay on elections to some of the municipalities. According to petitioners, elections were due for three corporations and 54 municipalities, and there was court stay on holding elections in respect of 77 municipalities.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, dismissed the PILs filed separately by advocate K Anjukumar Reddy from Nirmal district and S Malla Reddy from Medchal seeking a stay on issuance of notification to conduct municipal elections and to re-conduct entire pre-poll exercise.
Later, Congress MPs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, A Revanth Reddy, BJP MPs B Sanjay, Dharmapuri Arvind and Soyam Babu Rao also filed affidavits complaining that they were not informed or consulted by the authorities concerned to take their views and suggestions. On June 25 this year, the single judge granted 119 days time to the government for completing the pre-poll exercise. The court also granted 27 days time to the State Election Commission for holding elections. The court made it clear that the pre-poll exercise should be commenced forthwith and the proposed elections should be conducted as per the existing municipal laws.
Time frame
On the other hand, Additional Advocate General J Ramachandra Rao claimed completion of pre-election activities in all municipalities of the State and that the process was completed in a scientific manner and not in haste as alleged by the petitioners. The State government on Wednesday urged the High Court to grant permission to complete elections to 131 municipalities, which included old and newly constituted out of 141 existing municipalities. The department was completely geared up to conduct elections and put the elected body in place without any further delay, he added.
The bench, in its order, said that undoubtedly, the time frame prescribed by the single judge was the maximum time permissible and not the minimum time prescribed. According to Section 11 of the Telangana Municipalities Act, the electoral rolls prepared for the Legislative Assembly would be available, the identification of the SC, ST, BC and women voters would be an easy exercise.
Moreover, with technological advancement, the identification of voters can easily be carried out. The petitioners’ allegation was vague without any cogent evidence. Furthermore, a person who may have been misidentified or non-identified has not approached the High Court. Therefore, the petitioners’ allegations were clearly unacceptable, the bench noted.
With regard to the government’s notification dated July 3, 2019 for preparation of electoral rolls, the bench said since the electoral rolls could be finalised just prior to the issuance of election calendar which has not been issued by the election commission so far, the commission has ample time to finalise the electoral rolls. Therefore, challenging the notification was highly misplaced, the bench observed while dismissing the PILs.