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Orders reserved on Tamil Nadu State Election Commissioner contempt plea

This court directed the SEC to conduct the election before November 17, 2016. No clarification was required.

Chennai: The Madras high court has reserved orders on a contempt petition against the State Election Commissioner and secretary, Tamil Nadu State Election Commission, relating to conduct of local body elections.

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar reserved orders on a contempt petition filed by DMK represented by its organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi, after hearing marathon arguments from senior counsel P. Wilson and N.L. Rajah for the petitioners and senior counsel A.L. Somayaji for State Election Commissioner and secretary, TNSEC.

State Election Commissioner M. Malik Feroz Khan and T.S. Rajasekar, secretary, Tamil Nadu State Election Commission were present in the court during the hearing. The bench dispensed with the further personal appearance of the two officials on their undertaking to appear whenever their presence is required.
Stating that there was no willful disobedience of the order of the court, Somayaji submitted that the order of the court did not indicate either 1991 census or subsequent census. All along, the 1991 census was followed. Therefore, the SEC had a doubt with regard to delimitation. Hence, the government brought out an Ordinance repealing certain provisions of the Acts for the purpose of carrying out delimitation, he added.

Citing Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act, Somayaji said by virtue of repealing section 28A, 28AA and 28AAA, section 26 comes into play. As per section 26, delimitation has to be done based on 2011 census. The petitioner also wanted the same in the earlier petition. Notwithstanding the Ordinance, if the court says follow 1991 census, the SEC will go ahead with the election. Moreover, the State Election Commissioner has tendered an unconditional apology and prayed the court to discharge him, he added and requested the court to take a lenient view on the matter.

Senior counsel Wilson submitted that if there was confusion, the SEC could have asked the government to issue notification under section 28 of the Act dividing the areas. TN government has to clarify why they brought in the ordinance. This court said it will not go into delimitation. Then where was the question of doing delimitation based on 2011 census.

This court directed the SEC to conduct the election before November 17, 2016. No clarification was required. They cannot escape from contempt. There was intentional, deliberate and willful disobedience of the order of the court. Their apology was not bonafide and it should be rejected, Wilson added.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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