Hold panchayat polls within 3 months in Telangana, directs HC

HYDERABAD: Telangana high court Wednesday directed the state election commission (SEC) to conduct panchayat polls in the state within three months.Justice T Madhavi Devi also directed the state govt to provide the list of voters to the SEC duly classified into SC, ST, BC, General etc.,

categories along with the particulars of modified wards in line with the delimitation exercise within one month from now.The state govt also has to complete the process of reservation of seats for sarpanches and ward members.

The judge pronounced the order after hearing a batch of petitions filed by sarpanches of various panchayats seeking timely elections. The term of the sarpanches was over on Jan 31, 2024.Petitioners’ counsel Gummalla Bhaskar Reddy told the court that though the state was under a constitutional obligation to conduct polls within six months, it had not done so.

He also pointed out that this delay was violative of Articles 243E and 243K of the Constitution, besides being contrary to the provisions of the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018.Responding to the delay, additional advocate general Mohammed Imran Khan submitted that the process of identifying political backwardness of BCs had taken time and the govt was now ready with the data. As per the order of the Supreme Court, the triple test conditions are required to be complied with by the state before reserving seats in local bodies for OBCs, he said.

“The state govt appointed a one-man commission which has since submitted its report. That is the reason why elections could not be conducted before the completion of the tenure of the gram panchayats,” he said.The SEC advocate, senior counsel G Vidya Sagar, said the poll body was ready to conduct the election at the earliest and was waiting for concurrence from the state govt to issue notification.The judge in her order said: “The delay in conduct of elections is more than 14 months. Without going into the merits as to whether the delay is justified or otherwise, this court deems it fit and proper to direct the respondents to complete the election process on or before Sept 30.”