Hyd High Court stays govt order on GHMC elections

The Hyderabad High Court today stayed a government order (GO) curtailing the time between filing of nomination papers and withdrawal for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. A bench of acting Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice S V Bhatt observed that the government had issued a GO to comply with the earlier direction of the High Court that the civic elections must be held before January 31, 2016. However, the GO was contrary to the section 101 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, it said. Once GHMC Act (in existence before bifurcation of AP) has been adopted under section 101, the government cannot issue executive order amending it, for that it will have to go through the legislature, the court said. The government must follow the unamended section 33 of GHMC Act, it said. Telangana Advocate General Ramakrishna Reddy stated that the government was ready to issue the notification making the reservation of wards for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women, etc., before Saturday. The State Election Commission's counsel said that within 31 days of notification, the Commission would complete the process of election. The bench accepted both these statements. It asked the government to complete the process of reservation of wards before Saturday; the State Election Commissioner should complete the elections within 31 days of notification on reserved wards, it directed. The court order came on public interest litigations filed by Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy and others, complaining that the amendment of section 33 of AP Reorganisation Act was illegal.