Vijayawada: In a major relief to the state government busy with the Covid-19 vaccination programme, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday suspended the order of the State Election Commission (SEC) to hold gram panchayat polls. Issuing an interim order, the court posted the case for next hearing on February 15.
Vacation bench judge Justice M. Ganga Rao heard the petition filed by the state government seeking declaration of schedule of elections for local bodies, imposing the model code of conduct and the consequential proceedings banning transfers, as arbitrary as “illegal” on the ground they violated Article 14 of the Constitution. The government also urged the court to issue a direction to the SEC to stop further proceedings relating to the election process.
The Judge stated that the SEC issued the order for conduct of gram panchayat polls without holding proper consultations with the state government even as the Supreme Court had directed the SEC earlier to do…