Sarpanches file writ petition seeking voting rights
Hyderabad, February 2, 2007A Division Bench of the AP High Court comprising of Chief Justice GS Singhvi and Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy on Friday directed that all further proceedings, including issuance of election notification to the Legislative Council be stayed until further orders. The writ petition filed by Sarpanches' Association represented by YB Rajendra Prasad and others seeking voting rights. The petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of Section 4 of AP Legislative Council Act, 2006 by which the sarpanches are implicitly excluded from the electoral college of local body representatives.
Counsellor for the petitioner S. Ramachandra Rao said that sarpanches were the representatives of the grassroots level democracy, that is the Gram Swaraj and the elections were being held without giving them the voting rights. The Bench declared that the judgement would be delivered soon after hearing the arguments after hearing the arguments of both sides.
The Chief Justice dictated an order in the open court indicating that the judgment would be delivered within four or five days and until then the notification may not be issued. The matter posted to Monday as the bench at that stage made it clear that the order dictated before lunch was not signed yet.
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