Chennai: The Madras high court on Friday pulled up the state election commission for dragging the hearing on the appeal relating to local body elections.
When the appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and S.M.Subramaniam, senior counsel B.Kumar, appearing for TNSEC while arguing the case, he started giving judgments of the Supreme Court, which he is relying upon, in loose sheets.
Irritated over the same, the bench orally said it had already instructed both sides to file it by way of a paper book. Why then the TNSEC was giving it in loose sheets.
“Don't you a Xerox machine. You have battery of law officers, who can make it as a compilation and file it in the court in advance. By delaying the case, you are delaying the election”, the bench added.
Senior counsel P.Wilson appearing for DMK party submitted that he was ready to argue the case. However, senior counsel Kumar sought some more time. Following this, the bench posted to February 20, further hearing of the appeal.
Originally, on a petition from the DMK party, a single judge had on October 4 set aside the election notifications issued by the TNSEC for conduct of local body elections on October 17 and 18 and directed it to issue fresh notification, conduct elections and complete the election process by December 31. Aggrieved, the TNSEC filed the present appeal.
