The Telangana government on Monday told the Hyderabad High Court that it was geared up to hold elections to panchayati raj bodies immediately.
This was conveyed by Additional Advocate General J. Ramachandra Rao to a division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice S.V. Bhatt, which heard a petition filed by the State Election Commission (SEC).
“We are ready to hold elections and extend all logistics support to the SEC,” Mr. Rao told the bench.
The SEC had approached the bench, seeking permission to go ahead with the elections after a single judge passed an order to hold elections to gram panchayats, mandal parishad and zilla parishad territorial constituencies by January 10, 2019.
‘Count the slips too’
Congress candidate from the Gajwel Assembly constituency Vanteru Pratap Reddy moved the Hyderabad High Court on Monday, seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India to count the votes, using the slips obtained from Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice S.V. Bhatt would hear the petition on Tuesday.
Initially, the bench declined to intervene in the matter, observing that the ECI was already seized of the matter but posted it for further hearing.
The bench expressed satisfaction over the arrangements made by the ECI to conduct polls in sensitive areas in eight constituencies in the capital. The bench had earlier sought reports from the ECI, following two petitions filed by Congress candidate from Nampally Feroz Khan and the Majlis Bachao Tehreek seeking installation of surveillance cameras and video-recording of arrangements in the eight constituencies.
The bench closed the two petitions after going through the reports filed by the ECI.
