Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Thursday heard appeals filed by the Jubilee Hills Cooperative House Building Society Ltd challenging a single judge’s order that granted an interim stay on the society’s elections scheduled for April 5.A division bench led by the Chief Justice directed all parties to submit summaries of their arguments and adjourned the matter to April 20 for further hearing. During the proceedings, counsel for the appellants contended that the single judge had erroneously dismissed precedent judgments cited by them as irrelevant. They argued that the observation treating the right to vote as a fundamental right was legally untenable, pointing out that the Supreme Court has consistently held that the right to vote is a statutory right, and not even a common right.The interim directions were issued by the single judge on April 2 while hearing petitions filed by certain members challenging the election process.The petitioners — 18 members whose names were excluded from the final voters’ list — alleged that the election notification issued on March 18 was illegal, arbitrary, and violative of principles of natural justice. They contended that the notification was contrary to the provisions of the Telangana Co-operative Societies Act, the Telangana Co-operative Societies Rules, 1964, and the society’s own by-laws.
