Andhra State Election Commission agrees to publish candidate affidavits online following PIL

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The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday, October 30, disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) after the State Election Commission (APSEC) confirmed it has issued orders to publish contesting candidates' nomination papers and affidavits online for upcoming local body elections. With the state set to vote on Sunday, November 1, the portal had not published affidavit details at the time of disposal of the PIL.

The PIL in question was filed amid the ongoing violence in Andhra’s urban local body polls.

The case was heard by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice Challa Gunaranjan. The government pleader representing APSEC informed Chief Justice Lisa Gill that the commission issued an official order the previous day directing that candidate affidavits and nomination details be uploaded and displayed on the APSEC portal.

The petition was filed earlier in the week by Siva Karthik Valaparla, a resident of Nuzvid, Eluru district. The petitioner had approached the court seeking directions to compel the state election body to establish an online candidate disclosure system.

On October 17, Siva Karthik submitted a formal representation via email and post to the State Election Commissioner. Drawing a parallel to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) candidate affidavit portal, he had requested APSEC to create a dedicated web portal to publish nomination papers and affidavits organised by district, local body, ward, and candidate name to foster transparency and informed voting in local body polls.

In its written response dated October 23, the APSEC initially rejected the request. The commission cited Section 36 of the Andhra Pradesh Municipal Corporations Act and the AP Municipalities (Conduct of Election of Members) Rules, stating that governing election laws only mandated physical submission of nomination papers directly to Returning Officers and contained no statutory requirement for online publication.

Following the court's intervention, APSEC reversed its earlier stance and issued the necessary order to publish candidate affidavits on its portal, prompting the disposal.