HC directs AP not to conduct polls to gram panchayats merged civic bodies for 3 weeks

Vijayawada: The AP High Court on Friday directed the state government not to conduct elections to nagar panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations in which gram panchayats were merged, for three weeks.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice A.K. Goswami and Justice C. Praveen Kumar passed the order after hearing batch of petitions on Friday challenging the ordinance issued by the AP government to amend the AP Municipalities Act, 1965 and AP Municipal Corporations Act, 1994 to merge neighbouring gram panchayats in nagar panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations in December 2020.

Subsequently, the AP government carried out the amendment to certain provisions in the Acts to facilitate merger of gram panchayats.

The court gave opportunity to the petitioners to challenge the amended provisions by withdrawing the earlier petitions as the ordinance lapsed.

Advocate General S. Sriram assured the court that the government would not conduct elections to the civic bodies for three weeks as directed.