ECI Files Affidavit Stating That Khairatabad Bye Election Won’t Be Conducted Till Disposal of Election Petition

Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India on Tuesday submitted to the Telangana High Court that it would not take further steps to conduct the byelection to the Khairatabad Assembly segment, till the pending election petition filed by P. Vijaya Reddy was disposed of. The ECI filed an affidavit to this effect following the directions of the court in the petition filed by Vijaya Reddy.

The petitioner had requested the High Court to direct the ECI not to issue the notification for the byelection, contending that her election petition challenging Danam Nagender’s election in the 2023 Assembly polls was still pending. She challenged Nagender`s election on the ground of insufficient disclosure about the property details of his kin.

During the hearing of that petition on October 1, a division bench of the High Court had questioned the contention of the ECI. Senior counsel Avinash Desai, representing the ECI, had orally submitted that the poll panel would not conduct the byelection till the disposal of the election petition. Senior counsel had also referred to the judgment of the Supreme Court in 2010 in ‘ECI v. TRS ', in which it was ruled that the Election Commission would withhold the conduct of by-elections in constituencies where a previous election's validity was challenged through an election petition.

Considering the submission of the ECI, the High Court on October 1 had directed its counsel to submit its contention in an affidavit by October 6.