Madras High Court notice to IAS officers for not conducting polls by norms

Chennai: The Madras high court has issued statutory notice to senior IAS officers, Hans Raj Verma , principal secretary, Tamil Nadu, rural development and panchayat raj department, and Harmandar Singh, principal secretary, municipal administration and water supply, in a contempt plea filed against them by DMK for not conducting local body polls as per the orders of high court.

The Division Bench comprising Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and Justice M. Sundar, before which the contempt petition filed by R.S. Bharathi, DMK MP, came up for hearing on Tuesday, issued the statutory notice returnable by September 11. The bench said despite the undertaking given before the Supreme Court that the local body elections would be held by July 20,2017 The first bench passed the order in the local body polls matter on September 4, 2017 and ordinance was issued on September 3, 2017, which was Sunday.

“It appears that the proposal for promulgation of the ordinance has been moved at the instance of the above officials. Prima facie contempt has been made out. Statutory notice is issued to the above official's returnable by September 11, 2018 for willful disobedience in passing the ordinance,” the bench said.