AP High Court Stays Elections In Eluru Municipal Corporation Over Anomalies In Voters List

AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has issued Stay Orders on the conduct of the Eluru municipal corporation elections to be held on March 10 on Monday and has given the authorities the option of correcting anomalies in the voters' list. A single-judge bench, headed by Justice DVSS Somayajulu issued interim orders to this effect

The Judge was hearing a batch of petitions seeking an interim order to stay the March 10 polls to the Eluru municipal corporation as the authorities failed to rectify the anomalies in the preparation of electoral rolls and provision of reservation as mentioned in the petition.

Seven-gram panchayats surrounding Eluru town were merged with the municipal corporation on December 31, 2019 and petitions were filed on the irregularities in the delimitation of wards and that revision of electoral rolls were not done as per Electors Rules, 1960 and provisions of Representation of People’s Act, 1950. TDP leader SV Chiranjeevi and others had filed a petition in the High Court last year alleging that there were large-scale errors in the voters list and publishing the final voters' list without receiving any objections.

Following the hearing, Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy on March 5 last year directed the West Godavari District Collector to rectify the mistakes in the voters 'list in view of the objections raised by the petitioners over the printing of a dog's photo in the voters' list.

The petitioners had recently approached the High Court alleging that the authorities had not complied with the verdict. Justice Somayajulu, who recently heard the case, delivered his verdict on Monday. He objected that after the announcement of the draft voters' list, public notices were given as per the rules, no objections were received from the people, and the rules were not followed in the preparation of the final voters' list. He said the authorities had not fully implemented the orders given by the High Court last year. Hundreds of voters 'house numbers were shown as 000 on the voters' list, and many voters said their names were incorrect.

However, during the hearing on Monday, the court asked whether its earlier order to rectify anomalies in preparation of electoral rolls and other irregularities were addressed. When the petitioners’ counsel informed the court its earlier order was not complied with, the court issued an interim order to stay the Eluru municipal corporation elections. (With Inputs from Sakshi and Deccan Chronicle)