HC hears Writ petition challenging Nizamabad LS poll

Hyderabad: The Division Bench of Telangana High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice T Amaranth Goud on Thursday heard a petition filed by farmers contesting in the ensuing Parliament elections from Nizamabad Constituency.

The petition was moved as a lunch motion petition as soon as the court started in the morning and it was heard subsequent to lunch by the bench.

In the petition, the petitioners submitted to the court that they filed the present Writ after being aggrieved by the action of the respondents in not allotting symbols and not issuing specimen symbols to the petitioners who are contesting candidates for Nizamabad Lok Sabha Constituency as mandated under Rule 10(6) of Conduction of Election Rules 1961 and initiating process of allotment only after completion of scrutiny as per Rule 10(4) of Conduction of Election Rules 1961, thereby creating imbalance in the level playing field as illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 and Article 324.

The petitioners further submitted before the court that they are independent candidates and filed their nominations for Nizamabad Lok Sabha Constituency.

At the time of nomination all the petitioners have given their preference to the symbols to be allotted through FORM-2B. However, even after completion of scrutiny the petitioners have not been allotted any specimen symbols till date, while the elections are scheduled to be held on 11th April.

The petitioners further submitted that wait for the symbol to be allotted will deprive them of having equal chances to propagate their respective symbols thus creating an unfair, pronounced, deliberate imbalance in the level playing field that needs to be created by the respondents under Article 324 read with Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.

Therefore, the process of allotment of symbols to independent candidates after finalising contesting candidates U/Rule 10(4) is unconstitutional and violative of Art.14 and Art.324.

They further averred that they are deprived of their right to propagate their symbol and therefore elections to their Constituency should be held as part of the second phase and not on April 11.

Advocate B Rachna Reddy represented petitioners while Avinash Desai represented the Election Commission of India.

After hearing the Advocate representing the petitioner at length, the bench directed her to furnish nomination papers of all the contestants who are part of the present Writ Petition by Monday. The bench posted the matter to Monday for further hearing.