The Telangana High Court Wednesday directed the state government and the state Election Commission to hold gram panchayat elections, and declare the results before September 30, 2025.
Justice T Madhavi Devi was hearing a batch of petitions, filed in January 2024, seeking directions to the state Election Commission to conduct the polls to the gram panchayats whose term was set to expire on January 31, 2024.
Justice T Madhavi Devi directed the Telangana Government to complete the process of reservations to the wards in the local bodies within one month, and within two months thereafter, directed the state Election Commission to complete the process of gram panchayat local election, roughly by September 30.
Advocate Gummalla Bhasker Reddy, the counsel for petitioner Koppula Parvathi, a Sarpanch, said the government kept giving undertakings and on the last occasion, assured to conduct the gram panchayat elections by February 2025 but failed to do so.
“Before the expiry of the term (of gram panchayats), elections are supposed to be conducted as per constitutional mandate and Supreme Court judgments. But for 1.5 years, there was no election. The court decided it was high time, and fixed the timeline,” the counsel told The Indian Express.
