HC Reserves Verdict On Local Body Polls In AP

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has reserved its verdict after completion of hearings on a plea filed by the YSRC seeking a direction to the State Election Commission to conduct local body elections only after completion of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and publication of final electoral rolls.

A two-judge bench of Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice Challa Gunaranjan heard the matter here on Thursday and reserved the judgement.

Petitioner’s counsel S. Sriram argued that they were not seeking a deferment of the local body polls but raising objections over conduct of elections by taking January 1, 2026 as the eligible date for inclusion in the voters list. He argued that a large number of citizens might thus lose their right to vote.

He submitted that it would be appropriate to conduct elections only after completion of SIR of electoral rolls and publication of the final list of electoral rolls.

Referring to the draft electoral rolls published by the Election Commission as part of SIR of electoral rolls, the senior counsel submitted that nearly 15.22 lakh voters died, 7.37 lakh votes were fake and that the names of those who permanently migrated to other areas were also mentioned in the rolls.

SEC’s counsel Ashwani Kumar submitted to the court that local body polls would be held based on the electoral rolls available on January 1, 2026 and would allow changes in such electoral rolls until the notification for conduct of polls was issued.

Advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas on behalf of the state government argued that there was no need to hold back the conduct of local body polls until completion of SIR of electoral rolls and submitted that it was a continuous process. He observed that elections could be held based on the available list of electoral rolls referring to the earlier order issued by the Supreme Court.

After hearing both the parties, the court reserved the verdict.