The Andhra Pradesh High Court (HC) division bench imposed a stay on the single bench orders on the Zila Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) and the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) elections.
The A.P., HC put a stay on the orders issued by a single division bench, which ordered the cancellation of the ZPTC and the MPTC elections.
While putting the stay order, the A.P., HC said a comprehensive inquiry would be held on the 27th of July. The Court even ordered the State Election Commission (SEC) not to hold counting of votes until further orders.
In April, Varla Ramaiah, a senior leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) filed a petition against the implementation of the elections for the ZPTC and the MPTC. In the petition, the TDP leader said the 4 week election code also called the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was not imposed as per the directions of the Supreme Court. Besides the TDP leader, JanaSena Secretary Chillapalli Srinivasa Rao and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Paturi Nagabhushanam, also filed separate petitions seeking the reconduct of the ZPTC and MPTC election.
Back then, on the 7th of April, the AP High Court bench dismissed the petition of the TDP leader and gave a green signal to conduct the MPTC and the ZPTC elections in A.P., as per schedule, the 8th of April. The court also adjourned the case to the 15th of April and suspended the counting of votes until further notice.
Later the matter was transferred to another bench of the A.P., HC, which announced its verdict on the 21st of May. During the hearing, the new single bench of the High Court cancelled the conducted ZPTC and the MPTC elections. Justifying the judgment, the HC bench said, the election process held on the 8th of April, 2021 in A.P., violated the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court (SC.) As per the SC guidelines, the MCC and notification of the election should be issued 4 weeks ahead of the voting day.
Meanwhile, the State Election Commission lawyer explained to the court that the elections were held as per the Supreme Court orders.
However, the A.P., High Court, which has given permission to hold elections has halted the counting of votes, directed the single judge bench to hold an in depth inquiry into the matter.
With this, the matter has been postponed to the next hearing, which would be held after the 27th of July.
