Why didn’t you stall ULB polls? asks HC

Court faults SEC for not using the powers it had to shrink campaign period

What was the need to hold elections to seven urban local bodies despite the massive surge in COVID-19 cases in the State, Telangana High Court asked State Election Commission on Thursday. Taking a serious objection to the SEC’s decision to conduct elections to Warangal and Khammam municipal corporations along with five other municipalities, the HC wondered if “the SEC officials were living in a bubble”. “How can the SEC justify conducting the polls when people are losing lives to COVID-19?” a bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy said. The bench was hearing a batch of PIL pleas seeking to defer elections to the two municipal corporations and seven other municipalities spread over five districts. The CJ asked senior counsel Vidya Sagar, appearing for SEC, as to why the Commission did not defer the elections despite having powers.