The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the postponement of the publication of the final list of candidates for the urban local body polls in Andhra Pradesh to October 25 following allegations of violence and intimidation of Opposition candidates.
The final list was scheduled to be published on Wednesday.
A bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana passed the directions while allowing an appeal filed by the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP, challenging Andhra Pradesh High Court’s decision not to interfere in the ongoing electoral process.
The top court bench said the YSRCP had "made out a prima facie case" that several of its candidates were stopped from filing nomination papers for polls to around 100 urban local bodies.
It directed the state election commission (SEC) to postpone the publication of the final list of candidates till October 25 and consider the representations made by the petitioner and/or various candidates, including evidentiary materials placed before it, and take a decision by Thursday on extending the nomination deadline.
The bench directed the DGP to provide adequate security to the contesting candidates and the election offices, and file a compliance report before the court by October 27, the next date of hearing.
“Free and fair elections are a basic structure of the Constitution. Right to freely participate in such elections by filing nomination papers without hindrance is a facet of the free and fair election process. It is a constitutional duty vested in the State Election Commission under Article 243ZA to conduct and supervise municipal elections in a free and fair manner.
“Discharge of such duty would necessarily include all steps to ensure unhindered filing of nomination papers by all contesting candidates. The power of the constitutional courts to exercise judicial review... cannot be said to be wholly negated when the discharge of such constitutional duty of the SEC is hampered due to widespread violence...”, the top court said.