NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) to decide by Thursday whether to extend the nomination deadline for the state's ongoing urban local body elections, after the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) said many of its candidates were prevented from filing papers.
A vacation bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana asked the SEC to weigh representations from the YSRCP and its candidates, including video clips, on law-and-order disruptions during the nomination window, which ran from October 16 to 18. The court said the party had made out a prima facie case that candidates for polls to around 100 urban local bodies were stopped from filing nominations.
The bench also asked the SEC to defer publishing the final list of candidates, originally due on October 21. If the SEC extends the deadline, candidates get 48 hours from the time that decision is announced.
The court directed the state's Director General of Police to ensure adequate security, police bandobast and CCTV coverage at nomination centres, and asked the SEC to file a compliance affidavit by October 27, the next date of hearing.
YSRCP had moved the Supreme Court after the Andhra Pradesh High Court, on October 18, declined to extend the nomination deadline. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the party, told the court that nearly two-thirds of its candidates were prevented from filing nominations, citing assaults and law-and-order breakdowns.
Senior advocate K Parameshwar, for the AP SEC, argued that the conduct of elections was solely within the commission's domain and that the court should not pass a mandamus. Justice Bagchi said no mandamus was being passed, but pointed to the SEC's own acknowledgement of law-and-order concerns, including police protection it had ordered in Mydukur municipality, and asked the panel to "consider and extend the due date by one day."
The bench held that free and fair elections are part of the Constitution's basic structure, and that the right to file nominations is a facet of that process, even while it ordinarily keeps out of the election timeline.
(With inputs from PTI)