PIL for polls to KMC

A two-judge PIL bench of the High Court at Hyderabad, comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A. Shanker Narayan, asked the Government of AP to respond by the next week to a writ plea complaining of inordinate delay in the conduct of elections to the Kurnool Municipal Corporation.

The bench is hearing a writ plea filed in public interest by G Krishniah. The petitioner complained that the government had failed to conduct elections to the civic body for over five years.

The petitioner contended that this amounted to a failure of the constitutional provision which required elections to be held once in every five years.

The petitioner also challenged the government order that enabled it to extend the term of office of the Special Officer on a regular basis.

Rachna Reddy, counsel for the petitioner, argued that earlier the court had issued a detailed calendar for the conduct of the election, which should have been over by September.

Failure to conduct the elections, the petitioner said, was not only unconstitutional, but also in direct contravention of the orders of the court.