PIL CHALLENGES AMENDMENTS IN LEGISLATIONS

A PIL has been moved before the Hyderabad High Court challenging the amendments made to the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, 1955, the Telangana Municipalities Act, 1965 and the Telangana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994.

The forum for Good Governance, an NGO represented by its secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy, moved the PIL stating that the amendments empower the state government to have control over the State Election Commission (SEC) regarding conduct of elections.

Mr Reddy submitted before the court that with the amendments, the State Election Commission has to necessarily obtain concurrence from the state to conduct elections, thereby depriving the independence guaranteed to the SEC under Articles 243K and 243ZA of the Constitution.

He told the court that the amendments gives unlimited power to the state government regarding timing of elections to the Panchayat Raj Institutions, Municipalities and Municipal Corporations which likely to be misused and the amendment was an infringement and usurping the power and authority of the State Election Commission at present.

Mr Reddy submitted before the court that the amendments in these legislations gave 24 explicit and infinite implicit reasons to the executive to fix the notification and schedule of elections to local bodies which was otherwise executive power of the State Election Commission by virtue of the Articles 243K and 243ZA of the Constitution.