The Telangana High Court on Wednesday delivered its verdict on six petitions filed against the state government alleging that the state government has not been holding elections for local bodies for the past year and a half. Justice T Madhavi Devi ordered that the elections be held within three months. She advised the government and the State Election Commission to hold the elections as soon as possible.
Going into details, the arguments on the petitions filed by Nalgonda district Mallepalli Sarpanch Parvathi, Kurmapalli Sarpanch Srinivas, Janagama district Kanchanapally Sarpanch Vijaya, Nirmal district Talveda Sarpanch Anil Kumar, Karimnagar district Changarla Sarpanch Venugopal, and Nizayatigudem Sarpanch Muralidhar were completed in the High Court on Monday.
The petitioners argued that local bodies should have elected representatives and that not holding elections after the term of the governing bodies is unconstitutional. They brought to the notice of the High Court that the government has violated Articles 243E and 243K of the Constitution and the provisions of the Telangana Gram Panchayat Raj Act- 2018.
Meanwhile, the state government sought an adjournment for another 30 days to finalize the reservations for backward classes in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court. The High Court expressed impatience as to why the government, which had sought an similar adjournment in the previous hearing, is now seeking an adjournment again.
The government explained that it has formed a dedicated BC Commission to resolve the issue of BC reservations and that the issue before it is to finalize the BC reservations. Moreover, expressing its readiness to hold elections, the State Election Commission has sought a period of two months to conduct the elections after getting permission from the government.
The High Court delivered its verdict on Wednesday after the arguments concluded on Monday. The government, which tried to postpone the elections for some time on the pretext of BC reservations, was disappointed. Now, a situation has arisen where the elections must be held throwing an acid test for the Revanth Reddy government.
