Chennai: Stating that there is no willful intention at all in any way to disobey the orders passed by the court and the State Election Commission has great regard and respect always to implement the orders passed by the court, the State Election Commissioner, however, tendered unconditional apology and prayed the Madras high court to accept the same and absolve him of the contempt proceedings and discharge him from the contempt.
State Election Commissioner M.Malik Feroz Khan stated this in his counter affidavit filed in response to the contempt petition filed by DMK party represented by its organisation secretary R.S.Bharathi, relating to conduct of election.
Elaborating the legal hurdles, he said the holding of elections to local bodies has to be done on the basis of the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission constituted on the basis of TN Delimitation Commission Act, 2017. The commission was likely to complete its recommendation in the month of January 2018 and thereafter based on the recommendation of the delimitation commission, necessary notifications have to be issued constituting the newly delimited wards along with their reservation status by the state government.
By way of abundant caution, an interim application was also filed in the civil appeal filed by the DMK by the SEC before the Supreme Court with a prayer to direct and permit the SEC to conduct the elections to the local bodies on the basis of the wards to be constituted based on Delimitation as per the latest census, 2011. The said I.A and civil appeal were pending before the Supreme court. “The directions of this court could not be carried out in view of the subsequent events and developments”, he added.
