The State government has filed petitions in the Supreme Court and the High Court on Monday over the issue of the State Election Commission (SEC) postponing the local body citing the COVID-19 threat.
The government, in its petition before the apex court, accused the SEC of not taking it into confidence while taking the major decision of deferring the polls and called the move anti- constitutional.
The government also found fault with the SEC for not consulting the High Court on whose instructions the elections were scheduled.
The High Court adjourned the hearing on a writ petition filed by Kancharla Nirmala Kumari, to March 19.
Justice D.V.S.S. Somayajulu told the petitioner’s advocate that since the government appealed to the Supreme Court to instruct the SEC to conduct the elections as per the original schedule and the matter is pending, he was posting the hearing for Thursday.
Ms. Nirmala Kumari, who is a contestant in the election for S.A. Peta Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency in Krishna district, said in her plea that the SEC failed to notice that the judgment of the Supreme Court cited by it has no application to the facts and circumstances of the present case.
She argued that the commission should not have taken the extreme step of stopping the election process indefinitely and instead directed the government to take necessary steps to prevent the possible spread of coronavirus.
The SEC order is vitiated by surmises and conjectures, she alleged, demanding that the election process should be resumed forthwith.
