The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday adjourned the writ plea filed by the State Election Commission (SEC) against the stay imposed by Justice M. Ganga Rao on the proposed conduct of gram panchayat (GP) elections, for hearing by a regular Bench on January 18.
A Vacation Bench of the court comprising Justices U. Durga Prasad Rao and B. Krishna Mohan posted the matter as the first one before a regular Bench to the above date while continuing the suspension of the election notification.
To an objection raised by the SEC that the electoral rolls could not be prepared if the stay remained in force, Advocate-General (A-G) S. Sriram submitted that electoral rolls for the purpose of conducting the gram panchayat elections were prepared way back in March 2020 and a revised list would be received by the Chief Electoral Officer of the State by January 15 and the same duly forwarded to the SEC on January 22.
Responding to the SEC’s contention that the Model Code of Conduct, which came into force on January 9, was deemed to be suspended due to the stay order and and there is every possibility of the government launching certain schemes to woo the electorate, the A-G said since the elections are fought on non-party basis, the question of undertaking any such measures did not arise, and if the government wished to take up fresh development activities or implement new schemes, it would do so only with prior permission of SEC. Hence, any apprehension in that regard was preposterous.
After hearing both the sides, the court opined that posting the matter to January 18 would not cause any prejudice to either party.
Justice Ganga Rao granted stay on January 11 on the SEC’s decision to conduct gram panchayat elections in four phases in February after hearing arguments on the house motion petition filed by the government, which strongly objected to the election schedule citing the threat of second wave of COVID and vaccination programme as the grounds for keeping the polls on hold till the situation improved.
The SEC filed the writ appeal on the same day (January 11), wherein its standing counsel N. Ashwani Kumar argued that the election notification and the process thereof ought not to be interfered by the court once they had been set in motion.
