Telangana High Court dismisses KA Paul’s plea

A two-judge Bench of Telangana High Court dismissed a writ plea filed by the Praja Shanthi Party which sought directions to the ECI to allot a common symbol for their party

Hyderabad: A two-judge Bench of Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice NV Shravan Kumar, on Tuesday dismissed a writ plea filed by the Praja Shanthi Party which sought directions to the ECI to allot a common symbol for their party. The common symbol sought by the party was ”helicopter” or ”ring”. Party president Dr KA Paul contended that they were in existence as a registered political party since 2019 and said that non-consideration of his party was arbitrary. The ECI, on the other hand, informed that the petitioner had failed to produce annual accounts, financial statements and election expenses and said the petitioner”s case could not be considered. The Bench pointed out that the rejection order passed by the ECI on October 18 is not under challenge before the court and observed that the same cannot be interfered with. The court said that as the election process was in progress, the petitioner cannot claim any relief at this point.

Voters list

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The same Bench on Tuesday posted to November 20 the writ plea filed by Feroz Khan, Congress candidate for the Nampally Constituency. The petitioner contended that the Election Commission of India (ECI) failed to produce the list containing details of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters. Such absence of the list would enable bogus voting, he contended. The ECI pointed out that such a list would be made available after the withdrawal of nominations. ECI said that the grievance raised by the petitioner was premature. The Bench refused to accept the petitioner”s contentions that the absence of the list would hamper the confidence quotient of the election process, pointing out that reliefs and contentions not raised in the affidavit cannot be taken into consideration. Granting an opportunity for the petitioner to raise the other contentions, the Bench adjourned the case.

Party symbol

The same Bench on Tuesday issued notices to the Election Commission of India in a matter pertaining to the allotment of a common symbol to the Telangana Yuva Shakti Party. B Ram Mohan Reddy, president of the party, filed a writ plea aggrieved by the action of the ECI in declining the allotment of common symbol. The petitioner sought directions to ECI for allotting a common symbol for the party. The Bench issued notices to the ECI and adjourned the same.