Hyderabad: A vacation bench comprising Justice M.S. Ramchander Rao and Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy on Wednesday refused to stay the notification issued for the election to three seats in the Legislative Council under the local authorities’ quota from the old Warangal, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts.
The bench was dealing with a petition by Mr Kante Linga-swamy and three others from Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda who urged the court to stay the notification on the grounds that the Election Commission had not yet published the final voter list. Without a voter list, the elections could not be conducted. Rejecting the pleas, the bench said as per the Supreme Court orders, the judiciary had very limited powers under Article 226 of the Constitution in stalling elections once the notification was issued.
While disposing of the writ petition, the court directed the Election Commission and the Telangana State Election Commission to publish the available voter list and post it on the poll panel’s website within 24 hours.
Counsel for the petitioners submitted that conducting the polls without preparing and publishing the final list of electors on the websites or not providing hard copies as required under the election law was illegal.
Mr Avinash Desai, Counsel for the EC, submitted that the voter list was ready and would be published within hours.
The bypolls to three constituencies will be held on May 31. The seats fell vacant following the resignation of MLCs Patnam Narender Reddy and Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy following their election as legislators in the recent Assembly election and Mr Konda Murali after he joined the Congress before the December polls.
