Plea in HC to extend voting rights to teachers in Council polls; notices issued to govt

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court’s division bench of CJ Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao on Thursday issued notices to the Union Law Ministry, Election Commission, State Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Law and Legislative department), Principal Secretary (Primary and Upper Primary Education), State Election Commission, secretary, Legislative Council and collectors of Nalgonda and Karimnagar, directing them to respond within two weeks.

The bench was adjudicating the plea filed by Bheemanaboina Krishna Murthy, government secondary grade teacher, MPPS, Bandakadipally, Bommala Ramaram, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district, challenging the government’s decision in not extending voting rights to primary and upper primary teachers working government schools across the State in the teachers constituencies of the Legislative Council.

The petitioner challenged the government’s action in enacting the impugned Section 27 3b 5b 6 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950, by not providing voting right to the graduation certificate holders of local bodies, primary and upper primary schools in the teacher constituencies of the Legislative Council.

Chikkudu Prabhakar, counsel for the petitioner, said the primary and upper primary school teachers working in government schools are deprived of their voting rights in the ensuing teacher constituencies of MLC elections to be held in Nalgonda, Khammam, Warangal, Karimnagar, Jagtial, Rajanna Sircilla, Peddapalli, Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Medak, Sangareddy, Siddipet districts, except Maddur mandal. The petitioner sought a direction to suspend the proceedings issued by the district collectors-cum-election officers, Nalgonda and Karimnagar.