Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to issue notifications to empower all principal district judges to try municipal election cases in their respective districts.
The direction was given by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice M. Satyanarayana on a petition filed by A. Sudha Rani, who contested as a corporator, challenging the non-constitution of municipal election tribunals and not giving jurisdiction to the principal district judge of Kurnool district to try the election petition.
Petitioner’s counsel Yelamanjula Balaji argued that the non-constitution of the tribunals and not giving jurisdiction to the district judge to try municipal election petitions were illegal, arbitrary and in violation of Section 75 of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, 1955.
The Advocate General’s office counsel submitted that the government had issued a notification (GO Ms No. 4) giving jurisdiction to the principal district judge of Kurnool for trying the election cases in the Kurnool district under the Act.
However, the petitioner’s counsel Balaji argued that as per provisions of the 1955 Act, it was essential to give jurisdiction to all principal district judges in all the districts in the state to try election cases and submitted that it would be difficult for everyone to come to the High Court seeking direction to the state government to issue a notification to a particular district.
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