Vijayawada: In a major set back to the state government, Andhra Pradesh high court has given a green signal for conduct of gram panchayat polls as per schedule from Feb. 5 onwards in four phases.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice A.K.Goswami struck down the single judge bench order suspending the election proceedings issued by the State Election Commission earlier. Though the court completed hearing on the issue from both the sides of state government and the SEC earlier, it reserved the verdict and pronounced it on Thursday.
The court made it clear that as protection of public health and conduct of polls were both important, it directed the SEC to conduct gram panchayat polls without causing any hardships to others and also suggested to both the state government and the SEC to coordinate each other to conduct the polls.
However, the state government is going to move the Supreme Court challenging the AP High Court’s verdict allowing conduct of gram panchayat…