Publish voters' list for MLC elections, Telangana high court tells Election Commission of India

HYDERABAD: A vacation bench of the

Telangana high court

on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of India to publish the voters' list pertaining to the MLCs election in Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and

Warangal

districts under local bodies quota.


The bench comprising justices M S Ramachandra Rao and A Rajasheker Reddy gave this interim direction while hearing a petition filed by K Linga Swamy and three others who complained to the court that the state and the EC were moving in a hurried manner and were violating the norms in the process. The bench however made it clear that the election process cannot be stopped since the poll notification was already issued.

Petitioners' counsel Jandhyala Ravi Shankar told the court that the EC issued notification for the MLCs poll on May 6, 2019, without preparing the essential voters list. The elections for the state's local bodies were recently held and their results were not yet out. They are slated to be out on May 27. Now the election for MLCs under local bodies' quota was announced. The polling for this would take place on May 31. This would mean that the newly elected members of the local bodies will not be able to vote in this MLCs election, Ravi Shankar said pointing out that the EC is supposed to make public the voters list ten days before its poll notification.

EC counsel Avinash Desai told the court that they are ready with the list of electors for the purpose of holding MLC election. The bench directed the EC to display the list on EC's website immediately.
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