HC clears decks for polls to urban local bodies

A Bench of Justice D.V.S.S. Somayajulu of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday cleared the decks for municipal elections by dismissing a batch of writ petitions which challenged the State Election Commission’s notification for elections to urban local bodies (ULBs). The petitioners’ argument was that since the elections could not be conducted as per the original schedule i.e. on March 23, 2020, owing to various reasons, the entire previous election notification had become infructuous by efflux of time. The fresh notification for holding the elections on March 10, 2021 commenced only from the date of withdrawal of nominations, and it was issued nearly after 11 months from the abandoned election programme.