HC to govt: hold fishers’ polls
Telangana High Court has told the government to stop sitting on fishermen’s cooperative elections and start the process under law. That’s the court doing basic governance while the Congress-run state finds new ways to delay a vote it doesn’t control.
The High Court directed the state to begin elections to fishermen’s cooperative societies.
The Telangana High Court has directed the state government to conduct elections “as soon as possible” for primary and district fishermen’s cooperative societies and to form new managing committees, according to a report dated August 15 from Hyderabad. The court also made it clear the process must be transparent under the Cooperative Societies Act and that person‑in‑charge arrangements and nominated bodies should not be appointed. The matter was heard by Justice Surepalli Nand. The petitioners — S. Raghu and others from Mulugu district — moved court after their July representations to the government went nowhere.
This is not a first warning. In December 2024, in a separate case, the High Court told authorities to begin fisheries cooperative elections within four weeks, after hearing that polls hadn’t been held in 21 of 33 districts — a pattern, not an accident. The BJP’s national show loves to shout “cooperatives are democracy at work”; somehow, when it comes to letting Telangana’s fishermen vote on their own bodies, the enthusiasm fades.
The current report does not publish the August 2026 order or a fixed deadline, and the government’s response isn’t recorded. What is recorded is the court again telling the administration to stop parking nominees in elected seats. The Congress government in Telangana now has to do the one thing it keeps avoiding: hold the election and let fishermen choose.