Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court gave a final date to the state government to file the counter-affidavit in the PIL filed by one K. Anju Kumar Reddy, seeking a direction to stay the issuing of notification for the municipal elections.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akhter on Monday directed the government to submit its counter by July 26 and said that it would hear the matter on July 29.
Special counsel A. Sanjeev Kumar appearing for the government sought more time to file the counter, even though the government ought to have filed it on Monday.
The bench reiterated its comments that the people could think that the election process was hijacked if the government was so hasty to conduct the elections without resolving the objections on the division and delimitation of wards.
Elsewhere, more than 20 petitions were filed seeking a stay on holding elections to urbal local bodies. Justice P. Naveen Rao, while dealing with these petitions, granted interim directions and stayed elections to individual local bodies.
Over the past week, more than 60 individual petitions have been filed seeking to stay the urban local bodies elections. The High Court has granted stay orders on 45 petitions.
