Judge agrees to hear 77 pleas against urban polls

Justice Challa Kodandaram of Telangana High Court on Friday said he would hear the 77 petitions on which the court had stayed the issuance of election schedule in urban local bodies until the alleged discrepancies in the pre-poll process were rectified.

On October 22, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan paved the way for the State Election Commission and the government to hold polls to the urban local bodies by dismissing PILs which had sought directions against issuing the notification till the entire pre-election process is conducted again.

Government counsel then asked the court to give a nod to the elections on which the single judge had issued stay orders. The Chief Justice made it clear that the judgment in the PILs were not in any way related to the petitions pending before the single judge. He told the government that it should file vacate stay petitions before the single judge if it wanted to conduct elections.

The petitions before Justice Kodandaram were filed separately by voters, seeking a stay on the issuance of election notification because the officers had not followed the rules stated in the Telangana Municipalities Act in the delimitation of wards, identification of voters belonging to the SC, ST and BC communities among others.

The cases were listed before Justice Kodandaram on Friday after the government made an application before the court. While mentioning the Chief Justice court’s orders, additional advocate general J. Ramachandra Rao requested the court to vacate the stay orders. He said all the rules were complied with in the completion of the prepoll process.

To this, the petitioners’ counsels raised objections and asked the Justice Kodandaram hear their contentions. The court adjourned the case to October 31.