High Court brake for municipal poll notification till 5 pm today

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has asked the State Election Commission (SEC) not to issue the poll notification before Tuesday evening.

The court on Monday admitted a petition filed by TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy challenging the announcement of the election schedule by the SEC without finalising the reservation of wards and the posts of mayor and chairman of the urban local bodies.

The petitioner's counsel argued that the SEC's decision to the finalisation of the poll schedule without reserving the posts like mayor and chairman for BC, SC and ST communities is unconstitutional.

The counsel pleaded with the court to declare the poll schedule invalid and instruct the commission to make a fresh schedule after issuing a gazette on reservations.

After hearing the arguments, the court has asked the commission to stop issuing the poll schedule until further orders. The bench will take decision on Tuesday evening.

It may be mentioned here that the commission had announced the schedule for the conduct of the urban elections s including the date of poll as January 22 and the date of announcement of results as January 25.