Telangana HC pours water on govt’s Karimnagar civic poll plans, refuses urgent hearing

HYDEARABAD: The Telangana high court on Wednesday refused to take up an appeal filed by the state government seeking permission to go ahead with the election to Karimnagar Municipal Corporation (KMC) along with other municipal bodies.
The government was aggrieved with the restraint order passed by a single judge who, on Tuesday, directed the officials to rectify anomalies in the population figures of SCs and STs before going ahead with the polls in Karimnagar.It urged the high court bench to set aside the single judge order as it wants to conduct polls in KMC also.
Though the government filed an appeal against the order of the single judge and urged the bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan to suspend that order, it could not secure a copy of the order of the single judge.
Additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao requested the bench to hear the matter without the copy of the order. The CJ, however, refused to oblige because he was not aware of the contents of the order. Stopping the state counsel from making repeated appeals, the CJ asked: “Where is the order of the single judge? How do I know what was there in the single judge order. What is the logic behind asking me to hear a challenge to an order without placing the order in question before us?”
The state counsel urged the bench to trust his word and the state’s affidavit and hear the matter based on them. The CJ then said, “A lawyer is never to be believed until and unless a documentary proof of what he is saying is furnished. I am sorry. We will take it up on Friday.”
The state counsel said the single judge had passed order, which was in contravention to the order passed by this bench. “The single judge also did not take into account the evidence we placed before him. Now, we are unable to hold elections because of that restraint order. The government wants to hold elections there,” the state counsel said.
Counsel Mayur Reddy, who brought out the irregularities in Karimnagar, however, told the bench that the order of the single judge was reasonable and was passed after hearing the contentions in an elaborate manner. The state counsel requested the court to take up the case on Thursday if they could secure a copy of the single judge order. The bench told him to first get the order copy.