Telangana High Court dismisses Singareni management’s petition seeking postponement of trade union polls

Dealing with the present application which stated that there was a change in government and the administration was yet to settle down, the bench found the reason for postponement as unsatisfactory.

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday dismissed the petition filed by the Singareni Management, thus clearing decks for the trade union elections in Singareni coal mines. As undertaken by the Chief Secretary of the State in the previous hearing on October 11, the bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti directed to conduct the election on December 27 itself.

There are around 45,000 voters participating in the SCCL (Singareni Collieries Company Limited) trade union polls, and the elections were due to be conducted since 2022. The Central labour department has already issued the draft voters list and Poll schedule. Though the election were to be conducted on October 28, the Singareni management sought for postponement of trade union polls as the entire administration was busy with Assembly election arrangements. The company is spread over six districts in the State i.e., (i) Bhadradri Kothagudem (ii) Khammam (iii) Jayashankar Bhupalpally (iv) Mancherial (v) Peddapally and (vi) Asifabad, which are spread over 13 assembly constituencies.

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The court after considering the situation has directed to conduct elections on December 27. Dealing with the present application which stated that there was a change in government and the administration was yet to settle down, the bench found the reason for postponement as unsatisfactory. The bench observed that based on the undertaking given by authorities through Additional Advocate General this court has made a specific order and therefore seeking further time is held as unreasonable. Accordingly, the bench has dismissed the application for postponement of elections.

Telangana High Court dismisses Election Petition against former CM K Chandrashekhar Rao as ‘Infructuous’

The Telangana High Court on Thursday dismissed an election petition against former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao as infructuous. Justic B VijaySen Reddy was dealing with writ plea filed by Thammala Srinivas which challenged the election of Chandrashekhar Rao from the Gajwel assembly constituency in 2018. The petitioner raised allegations of bogus votes, non-disclosure of liabilities and pending criminal cases and various other deficiencies in the election affidavit. Contentions were also raised about violation of requirements under the Representation of People’s Act as well as the Conduct of Election Rules. The court observed that the term of election and the challenge was lapsed by a flux of time and that any enquiry into the matter would be of only theoretical value.