The single-judge Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, while reserving its order on the proposed conduct of local body elections until December 29, has insisted that there be a process of fresh consultation in the matter as directed by the Supreme Court.
Advocate-General (A-G) S. Sriram told the Bench of Justice A.V. Sesha Sai during a hearing on Wednesday that there should be an objective consultation, including the possibility of holding elections, in view of the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and maintained that public health and public interest were the highest considerations in the apex court order.
The Advocate-General said that State Election Commission (SEC), which had decided to conduct the elections in February 2021 and started making preparations amidst certain objections raised by the government, agreed with the court’s suggestion that there was a need for all the issues to be dealt with an open mind and all the stakeholders were supposed to reach an amicable solution.
In a reply affidavit filed on December 22, Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi contended that the SEC neither took the State government’s opinion nor considered the Central government’s guidelines on COVID-19 containment and various reports of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Meetings with only the Chief Secretary, or the Secretary (Health), on COVID-19 could be called a consultative process as contemplated by the Supreme Court.
SEC affidavit
In his counter-affidavit filed earlier, State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar had stated that Bihar, Rajasthan and Telangana had successfully conducted elections without any consequent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases with the cooperation of the respective State governments, and that Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra were holding the elections between December and February.
“A.P. is similarly placed and it cannot give any excuses for not cooperating with the SEC,” Mr. Ramesh Kumar stated.
He further said that the decision taken by SEC in March should not be equated with its present decision because COVID-19 threat was then looming large, forcing the governments all over the world to impose lockdowns, whereas the pandemic “is past its peak in India now.”
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