Deleting Congress candidate’s name from voter list: Telangana HC refuses to interfere

Hyderabad: Telangana High refused to interfere in a petitioner seeking a direction to the Chief Electoral Officer, Nagarkurnool, to delete the name of Mamidala Yashaswini, who is contesting the assembly election on the Congress ticket, from the voters list.

A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar while disposing of the petition said: “Admittedly, the election to the State Assembly has already commenced on 9-10-2023, the jurisdiction of this Court to interfere in the process of election, once the same has commenced is well defined in catena of judgments”.

Further, the court took into consideration the contention of the senior counsel appearing for the ECI Avinash Desai that the petitioner was informed that the Election Commission had issued a clarification on August 11 that no addition or deletion of voters is allowed after the notification for elections has commenced.

The court was adjudicating the petition filed by Kampally Deva, a resident of Rajeev Nagar colony, Dindi, Nagarkurnool District seeking a direction to the ECI, Chief Electoral Officer, and District Election Officer to delete the name of Mamidala Yashaswini from the electoral rolls of 12 Nagarkurnool Parliamentary Constituency and 82 Achampet Assembly Constituency on the ground that she is an NRI and not eligible to contest the elections.

The court observed that in case Mamidala Yashaswini is elected in the ensuing elections, her election can be challenged on the ground of improper acceptance of the nomination in an Election Petition Under Section 82 and 83 read with Section 100 of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951.