IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD THURSDAY, THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF DECEMBER, TWO THOUSAND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR. ANIL R. DAVE, THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.19661 of 2009 Between: Peddampet Shankar Merugu & another. … Petitioners And: The State Election Commission, Rep., by its Commissioner & others. …Respondents. Counsel for the Appellants: Sri D.L. Pandu Counsel for respondent No.1: Sri V.V. Prabhakar Rao Counsel for respondent No.2: G.P. for General Administration This Court made the following: THE HON'BLE MR. ANIL R. DAVE, THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No. 19661 of 2009 JUDGMENT:- (Per Hon’ble Sri C.V.Nagarjuna Reddy, J) In this Writ Petition, the grievance of the petitioners is that though the elected term of the Ramagundam Municipal Council has expired on 01.07.2009, elections are not being held. Though the Special Officer of Ramagundam Municipality and the State Election Commission filed their counter affidavits, no counter affidavit has been filed by the Government, which is respondent No.3. However, the learned Government Pleader for respondent No.2 submitted that since the proposals for conversion of Ramagundam Municipality into Corporation are pending with respondent No.3, elections are not being held. In order to ascertain the time within which the conversion procedure will be completed, the learned Government Pleader has taken adjournments on several occasions. But, he has not come out with any specific time frame within which the Government will be able to complete the conversion process. It is trite that every local authority should have an elected body in place for proper administration. The Special Officer cannot be allowed to continue for too long on the ground that proposals for conversion of municipality into corporation are pending. As the Government is not in a position to specify the specific time frame within which the process for conversion will be completed, in our opinion, it should take necessary steps to hold elections for the existing municipality, pending conversion process. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of with the direction to the respondents to immediately initiate steps for holding elections to the Ramagundam Municipality and complete the process as expeditiously as possible. As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, WPMP.No.25649 of 2009 filed by the petitioners for interim relief is disposed of as infructuous. ANIL R. DAVE, CJ C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Date: 17.12.2009 ES