HC seeks poll panel's stand on holding local body elections

The Madras High Court today asked the State Election Commission if it was interested at all in conducting the local body polls.
Justice N Kirubakaran put the query while observing that the polls were being postponed on one pretext or the other.
The counsel for SEC submitted that the poll process was already on as the voters' list was being verified, while the Commission has begun working to implement the court's earlier directives on local body polls.
The judge had earlier quashed a notification for the conduct of local body polls and directed that it should be conducted by December 31, 2016.

The judge today said he would take up the hearing of the case relating to local body polls on April 3 as there was no stay by a division bench on his earlier order to conduct the polls by December 31, 2016.
The bench was hearing appeals filed by the SEC challenging a single-judge bench order quashing the earlier notification for conduct of the local body polls.
Earlier when the appeals had come up before the bench, the SEC had submitted that it may be practically difficult to conduct the local body elections by May 14, 2017.