A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, headed by Chief Justice Justice A.K. Goswami, has given the nod for counting of votes of ZPTC, MPTC elections held in April this year, bringing the curtains on a process which began in March 2020.
Justice Goswami had earlier stayed the order of a Single Judge who cancelled the ZPTC, MPTC elections and reserved judgment on August 5 on an appeal filed by the State government against the cancellation of Single Judge order.
Following the judgment, State Election Commissioner Neelam Sawhney said that a coordination meeting would be held with the Director-General of Police and the Chief Secretary on the modalities for counting of votes.
The process of ZPTC/MPTC was set in March 2020 and just days before the election, the then Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh postponed the elections citing COVID-19.
A new notification was issued on April 1, 2021 and elections were held on April 8. On May 21, a Single Judge Bench cancelled the elections, hearing a petition filed by TDP leader Varla Ramaiah that the four-week mandatory period of Model Code of Conduct was not taken into consideration from the date of announcement of election schedule to the conduct of elections on April 8.
