HC clears bypolls to 2 T-seats

The AP High Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission to hold byelections in Vemulawada and Sircilla Assembly constituencies along with the byelections scheduled for 10 other constituencies on July 27.

A division bench comprising Justice V.V.S. Rao and Justice

Vilas V. Afzulpurkar gave this directive while allowing a writ petition filed by the Telangana Rastra Samiti. Sircilla was represented by Mr K.T. Rama Rao, son of the TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and Vemulawada by Mr Ch Ramesh of the TD, who subsequently joined the TRS.

The EC had withheld the by-elections to both the constituencies as petitions were pending from the runners-up in the 2009 elections who wanted to be declared winners. The TRS welcomed the judgment.

Asked about the judgment, the Chief Electoral officer, Dr I.V. Subba Rao, told this newspaper that he had informed the EC. The Chief Election Commissioner, Mr Navim Chawla, told him that the full commission will take a decision on Thursday. Mr Rao said there was no problem in holding the bypolls since the electoral rools had been published for the two seats also.

The HC observed that the pendency of election petitions and the uncertain consequences that might follow would not in any manner dilute the effect of Section 151A of Representation of Peoples (RP) Act especially when the Speaker of Assembly has already notified the vacancies.

The bench said that Section 150 of the RP Act was silent on a seat becoming vacant during pendency of election petition. “But the silence in this regard does not enable withholding by-election,” said the judges.

Referring to the powers of the EC in withholding the election, the judges said, "It is not the case before us that the EC has consulted with the Centre and certified not to hold elections to two constituencies."

The bench said even if the elected candidate resigns during pendency of election petition against him, a by-election has to be held within a period of six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy.

"Even if the petitioners in the two election petitions pending before the court win...the court can always deny the relief,” said the judges.

Referring to the apex court’s findings in Sanjeevayya case, the court also said the pendency of election petition and the possible consequences could not be used to ignore Section 151A.

The bench further said Article 190(3) (b) of the Constitution does not admit such differentiation and any vacancy that arises should be filled through as by-election within the period mandated by the Parliament.

Bypolls to 10 T seats on July 27

Bypolls to 10 of the 12 vacant Assembly seats from Telangana will be held on July 27, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday, setting the stage for a bitter political battle. Counting of votes would be taken up on July 30 from 8 am.

Byelections will be held to Sirpur, Chennur (SC), Mancherial, Yellareddy, Koratla, Dharmapuri (SC), Huzurabad, Siddipet and Warangal West that were held by the TRS, and Nizamabad (Urban) which was held by the BJP.

Byelections will not be held in the Sircilla and Vemulawada, where election petitions filed by losing candidates in the 2009 polls are pending in the AP High Court.

In Sircilla, Mr Mahender Reddy, a TRS rebel, who lost by 171 votes, has alleged irregularities in counting. In Vemulavala, Mr Adi Srinivas of the Congress contended that the winner, Ch. Ramesh in 2009, was not an Indian citizen. The TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, saw a “politically conspiracy” in the EC leaving out these two seats.

The notification would be issued on July 2 and the last day for filing nominations would be July 9. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is July 12. Polling would be held between 7 am to 5 pm on July 27.

Anti-TRS petitions put EC in a fix over bypolls

The Election Commission is unable to announce the dates of the ensuing bypolls in Tel-angana because of petitions challenging the victories of candidates from three of the segments in 2009 pending before the High Court.

Provisions in the Rep-resentation of People’s Act 1951 allow the EC to hold bypolls even when petitions challenging the declaration by the returning officer are pending. But in this instance, two petitioners (the nearest rivals) have requested that they be declared the winners and this has troubled the EC.

It is now consulting legal experts on whether it can hold bypolls in these three Assembly segments in this context. Bypolls to 12 Assembly segments have to be conducted before August 13 and the EC wants to issue notification by June end and hold polls in the last week of July.

The petitions before the HC challenge poll victories of Mr K.T.Rama Rao, son of TRS chief, Mr K. Cha-ndrasekhar Rao, (Sircilla), Mr Chennamaneni Ramesh (Vemulawada) and Mr Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar (Warangal West).