HC declines to intervene in Nizamabad election process

HYDERABAD: Telangana high court on Monday dismissed a writ petition filed by contesting turmeric farmers of Nizamabad, who questioned ‘non-allotment’ of symbols by the EC.


The farmers are testing their luck as independents. The HC said once the election process commences, scope for courts to intervene in the matter is minimal.

“We cannot intervene in the election process at this stage. There are Supreme Court judgments asking courts not to intervene. We will examine the validity of rule 10(4),” a bench of acting Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Rajasheker Reddy said. Farmer Sunketa Ravi and 15 others have filed the plea.

B Rachana Reddy, counsel for the farmers, urged the court to direct EC to hold elections in Nizamabad in the second phase in view of the huge number of candidates in fray. The bench, however, declined to pass any such order and posted the case to two weeks. The HC told the petitioners that it will hear their plea after two weeks only if they make the Centre as a respondent in the case.

The petitioners also questioned the constitutional validity of rule 10(4) of Election Rules-1961 which says that independents should be given symbols only after completion of scrutiny, whereas candidates from recognised parties with their symbols reserved for them have an undue advantage over them during campaigning. They asked the HC to declare this rule unconstitutional.

Election commission counsel, Avinash Desai, while disagreeing with the contention that none of the independents has been given a symbol so far, questioned the maintainability of the petition. “It was filed after the poll process began. They are aggrieved with an election rule brought in by the central government. They should make the Centre a party to the case,” he said.