- Andhra Pradesh High Court permits MPTC (Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency) and ZPTC (Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency) to conduct elections from tomorrow onwards.
- The advocate representing AP State Election Commission told High Court that the election process will begin from where it was halted last year in March 2020.
- Justice U Durgaprasad Rao of Andhra Pradesh High Court, who had heard the petition filed by TDP, BJP and JSP for three days straight had reserved his order on Monday, 3rd of May, 2021.
- The SEC wants to conduct the polling for the ZPTC and MPTC elections across the state of Andhra Pradesh on April 8. It requested the high court not to interfere in the election process at that stage.
- However, the High Court has reserved its verdict after the SEC arguments. The court expected to deliver its judgement on April 6, Tuesday.
- The Division Bench of the High Court ruled on the conduct of the Parishad elections. The division bench struck down the stay given by the single judge stating that the election could be held. However, it stated that the results should not be announced until further orders.
- Justice U Durgaprasad Rao, who had heard the petition filed by TDP, BJP and JSP for three days straight had reserved his order on Monday.
- A single-judge bench hearing the petitions filed by the BJP and TDP (Telugu Desham Party) on Tuesday seeking stay of the polls that struck down the BJP’s petition. However, the court hearing the petition filed by the TDP commented that the SEC had failed to implement the 4-week election code as per the Supreme Court guidelines.
- The petitioners in their plea to Andhra Pradesh HC claimed that they were not consulted before the date for the announcement of the election.
- It is important to note here that earlier, the newly appointed State Election chief Nilam Sawhney on April 1 had issued a notification announcing MPTCs and ZPTCs polls. The polling was scheduled for April 8 and the counting of votes was supposed to be held on April 10.
- Opposition TDP, Janasena, BJP are objecting at SEC holding elections as per the old notification. They were demanding the cancellation of old notification and begin the election process afresh by issuing a new notification.
- The TDP has already announced to boycott these elections in protest. But the SEC stood adamant in holding the event as per the old notification.
- During the hearing, the counsel for the State Election Commission, CV Mohan Reddy, had argued that the Commission has the powers to modify or renotify the election process as per Rule 7 of Andhra Pradesh Panchayath Rah election conduct rules. He had also reminded the court about the Supreme Court’s orders to resume the election process, which was stalled in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Meanwhile, advocate C Suman, who is representing the government had told the court that there was a need to complete polls at the earliest because the Andhra Pradesh state government was making plans to intensify the COVID-19 vaccination drive in light of an exponential surge in the Coronavirus cases in the state.
Previous post: [ 2021 Tirupati Lok Sabha Seat By-Election Results: ]