Court suspends orders cutting poll process for Hyderabad

The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday suspended the orders of Telangana government, which cut the poll process of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Dilip Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt suspended the Government Order issued earlier this week, reducing poll process to mere 14 days from 45 days.

The court was dealing with petitions filed by Congress leader M. Sashidhar Reddy and others, challenging the amendment to GHMC Act 1955.

The advocate general informed the court that reservation of divisions for various categories will be finalised on Saturday.

The court directed that elections should be held within 21 days from the date of issue of notification.

Reacting to the verdict, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said the GHMC polls would be held as per the directions of the court.

In a statement, the chief minister said the duration of poll process was cut to overcome the certain difficulties faced by the government and people.

He said since services of 100,000 government employees were required to conduct elections to 150-member GHMC, and this would affect the governance for nearly a month. The chief minister said long poll process would also cause inconvenience to people in Hyderabad.

The main opposition Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Bharatiya Janata Paty and others had slammed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government for reducing the poll process, terming it as an attempt to win the elections through back door.