TN SEC appears before HC in contempt plea

Top officials of the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission today appeared before the Madras High Court in connection with a contempt plea by the opposition DMK against them for not complying with a court order on holding local body elections.
State Election Commissioner M Malik Ferozh Khan and its secretary S Rajasekar appeared before the division bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee.
A L Somayaji, counsel for SEC, sought for dispensation of further appearance of the two officials in the contempt matter, which was objected to by DMK's counsel P Wilson.
Wilson submitted that the SEC was deliberately postponing the civic polls. The dispensation of their personal appearance was not a matter of right and also not automatic.

Till the disposal of the contempt petition, they should continue to appear before the court, he submitted.
The matter relates to the contempt petition filed by the DMK, represented by its organisation Secretary R S Bharathi, seeking to punish the officials for not complying with the orders of the high court which had earlier directed that the polls be completed by November 17.
In its September 4 order, the court had directed the SEC to issue the notification for the polls on September 18 and complete the entire process by November 17.
The bench recorded the submissions and posted the matter to November 10 to decide on the plea to dispense with the personal appearance of the SEC officials.