Chennai: The State Election Commission on Friday informed the Madras high court that it has some “practical difficulties” in conducting the local body elections by May 14, as directed by the court.
Making his submissions to this effect, senior counsel B.Kumar for TNSEC said, “There are some portions in the interim order, which mandates that certain aspects like disposing of the objections filed against the reservations and rotation of seats have to be completed before commencing the election process. It is for the state government to dispose of the objections, as the TNSEC does not have such powers. If the commission commences the process before fulfilling these mandates, it would be a plain violation of the order.
The order has also directed the state government to amend the acts and rules governing the local body elections, so as to bring in provisions preventing persons who are convicted of certain offences from contesting the election. All these aspects have to be fulfilled by the state government and only then the TNSEC would be in a position to commence the election process”.
Earlier, citing a five judge judgment of the Supreme Court, social activist A.Narayanan, who filed an intervening petition, contended that the election to local body cannot be deferred beyond six months after the expiry of the term. Postponing the election beyond six months will be violation of constitutional mandate, he added.
Asking as to how the commission can be forced to conduct elections whey it claims that there were practical difficulties, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G.Ramesh and Justice R.M.T.Teeka Raman directed the TNSEC to file a detailed counter explaining the difficulties and also its response to the constitutional bar pointed out by the intervening petitioner, by April 3.
