HC Asks for ECI Decision on SIR Forms in Telugu Outside Hyderabad
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the counsel for the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take directions in a petition complaining against the decision to distribute census forms in Telugu for special intensive revision of electoral rolls (SIR)-2026 outside GHMC constituency.
Justice Pulla Karthik was hearing a petition filed by MA Mujeeb of Karimnagar district seeking an order directing the ECI and state election authorities to provide the forms in Telugu and English across Telangana.
According to the petition, the form was an important election document that allows voters to verify, correct and update personal information on their voter rolls. The petitioner argued that making the forms available only in Telugu would adversely affect a significant section of the electorate, including migrant workers, professionals, students, businessmen and retired persons residing in Telangana who are not proficient in the language.
The defense stated that the decision was taken without sufficient consultation with political parties, social organizations and other stakeholders. He argued that language barriers could lead to errors, omissions, delays, and even the exclusion of eligible voters from the revision process, thereby undermining the goal of maintaining an accurate and inclusive voter roll.
The petitioner relied on Rule 4 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, which empowers the Election Commission to specify the language or languages in which the electoral rolls are to be prepared. Reference was made to the ECI’s ‘Electoral Register Handbook (March 2023)’, which stipulates that electoral rolls in metropolitan areas should be published in English and, in some cases, additional languages where significant linguistic minorities are present.
The ECI lawyer noted that booth-level officers who conduct house-to-house visits also carry a census form printed in English. If a voter requests an English form, the same will be provided. Considering the urban population, it has been suggested that Telugu forms as well as English have been adopted within the limits of GHMC.
In the remaining districts, sample forms in English and Urdu will also be carried by the BLO to address practical difficulties and voters’ grievances. ECI noted that similar practices carried out across the country in earlier stages generally involved printing census forms in the local language.
HC continues to apply articles of G0 9 regarding fee refund
Hyderabad: Justice Juvvadi Sridevi of the Telangana High Court on Thursday stayed the implementation clauses of the government order regarding payment of fees by students in private professional colleges. Under the new scheme, the government would transfer the fee amount directly to the students, who would then pay it to the respective colleges.
The new guidelines mandated that colleges should not insist on payment of tuition and other fees at the time of admission and students should remit these fees to the institutions from the scholarship amounts deposited in their Aadhaar bank accounts.
Earlier, the judge was hearing a batch of writ petitions over the state government’s failure to complete fee reimbursement payments amounting to hundreds of crores to the managements of the institutions. Judge, GO Ms No. issued by Scheduled Caste Development (Edn.A1) department, which contains consolidated implementation guidelines for direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode of scholarship distribution to students from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class. 9 suspended on 6 June. Economically Backward Class, minority and differently-abled student communities starting from the 2026-27 academic year.
Previously, an interim order allowed petitioner institutions to collect tuition fees directly from eligible students without reference to government orders, subject to the outcome of their writ petitions.
L. Ravichander, senior advocate appearing for one of the petitioning colleges, GO Ms. No. 9 should be suspended pending further hearings, he argued, as it was a mere continuation of the previous government order that could not withstand judicial scrutiny. He argued that what the state could not achieve under GO 7 could not be achieved through GO 9.
Senior advocate Sreeram, appearing on behalf of other petitioning colleges, argued that the government is indirectly trying to do what it cannot do directly by repackaging the same provisions under new terminology and entrenching the guidelines while the earlier decision remains pending. He noted that the consolidated guidelines largely mirror the problematic clauses of the withdrawn GO 7, especially those regarding fee collection and payment timelines.
State, GO Ms. No. He argued that the suspension of 9 would adversely affect the implementation of the Centre’s direct benefit transfer mechanism. Judge, GO Ms. No. He noted that 9 is largely similar to GO. 7, whose operation had already been stopped by the court. Therefore, the court made it clear that four articles of GO 9—5.2(e), 10.2, 10.4, 12.1(a)—will not apply.
