HC pulls up TN poll commission counsel for dragging case

The Madras High Court today pulled up the counsel for the State Election Commission for dragging an appeal filed by the poll body against a single judge order cancelling civic polls in Tamil Nadu, originally slated to be held last October.
"You don't want to conduct the elections and you don't want to conduct the case. You are simply dragging on the case. You are irritating us," Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao said in his oral observation.
Chairing a division bench, also comprising Justice S M Subramaniam, he asked senior counsel B Kumar for the SEC to inform the court about the exact time required to conduct the local body elections.

On October 4, 2016, a single judge of the high court had set aside the September 26, 2016 election notification issued by the SEC.
The polls, scheduled for October 17 and 19, 2016 were cancelled were by the court citing non-compliance of Tamil Nadu Panchayat (Elections) Rules, 1995. The SEC moved an appeal against the single judge's order.
The observation was made by the judge when the SEC counsel started submitting papers citing judgments of Supreme Court while beginning to argue.

Questioning why the papers were not filed as "typed set", Justice Rao asked, "You don't have photo copying machine. You have a battery of lawyers to assist you. Your intention seems to be not to conduct the elections and only to drag the matter."

The bench then directed the counsel to file the typed set papers by Feb 20 so that the bench could finalise the matter.
When the same matter came up on Jan 27, Kumar had said that the Commission would conduct the elections by April.
The bench intervened and sought to know why such a long time was required. Replying, the counsel had submitted that he would get instructions from the authorities on the matter.