Madras HC raps TN SEC for delay in conducting local body polls

The Madras High Court Friday pulled up the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (SEC) for delaying the conduct of local body elections in violation of its order.

A division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Sundar also criticised the SEC for adopting "double standards" before the Supreme Court and the High Court in connection with holding polls.

Citing the contradiction in its submissions, the bench asked the SEC to explain.

To this, senior counsel for SEC submitted that the commission should not have filed such a petition before the apex court and assured to withdraw it as early as possible.

The SEC had submitted in the High Court that it could not conduct election to local bodies since the state government was yet to complete the delimitation process of the wards based on 2011 census.

On the other hand it had filed a plea in the apex court claiming that 2011 census was ready and that the commission must be permitted to go ahead with the polls.

During the hearing, the counsel for Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) insisted that the court must frame contempt charges against the authorities of the state and the commission for "wilfully violating" court orders in holding the election.

He also contended that the "ruling party is fearing to face the election".

Recording the submissions, the bench posted the matter for further hearings on November 8.

The case relates to the contempt petition filed by R S Bharathi of DMK against State Election Commissioner Malik Feroz Khan and its secretary Rajasekhar, for not complying with the order of the court directing that the local body polls be completed by November 17, 2017.