Chennai: The Madras high court declined on Saturday to stall elections to the executive committee of the Young Baduga AssociÂation in th Nilgiris district, in accordance with the TN Societies RegistÂration Act, scheduled to be held on January 12.
Passing interim orders on appeals from H. Thiagarajan and four others, a division bench, comprising justices V. Dhanapalan and M. Duraiswamy, directed the election commissioners to conduct the election as scheduled on January 12 as per the Act and by-laws of the society.
After the election, the election commissioners were directed to bring the sealed ballot boxes to the Madras high court the same day and hand them over to the registrar general of the court the next morning, i.e., January 13.
The superintendent of police, Ooty, was directed to provide necessary police protection for the peaceful conduct of the election and till the ballot boxes reach the registrar general, the bench added.
Taking into account the laudable and avowed objectives of the by-laws of the society and considering the interests of the people belonging to the Baduga community, who were earlier in the tribal list, but now coming under the backward class as per the list announced by the TN government, and also taking note of the fact that the senior counsel for the parties were social activists fighting for the cause of various sections of society, the bench noted, “We are of the view that the dispute may be resolved among them in an amicable manner and in that regard, counsel for the parties may apprise their respective parties, keeping in mind the suggestions of this court.”
The bench directed the registry to list the matter on February 5. Originally, on a petition from the Young Baduga Association by its secretary R. Ravikumar to conduct election, Justice K.K. Sasidharan had, on November 29, 2013, after getting consent from the petitioner and Niligiris MLA Buddhichandran, appointed Sundaradevan, IAS (retired) and B. Kali, district judge (retired) as election commissioners to conduct the election on or before January 15, 2014. Assailing this order, H. Thiagarajan and four others, who are third parties, filed the present appeals.
The bench said since all arrangements were already made for the election, it was of the considered opinion that there was no necessity to stall these.
