Chennai: The Madras high court has asked the state election commission as to why it should not complete the election process to the local bodies by the end of August.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M.Sundar posed this query orally during the hearing of the appeal filed by the state election commission and the petition filed by the DMK party relating to local body elections.
Senior counsel B.Kumar appearing for State election commission submitted that without implementing the 9 directions issued by a single judge, it is practically impossible to conduct the elections. The SEC has already prepared the electoral rolls with pictures of the voters, but it is for the bench to decide on which of the directions of the single judge should be implemented and which need not be. Only then, the other process of the election could be commenced, he added.
Following this, the bench posted to July 26, further hearing of the case.
The appeal preferred by the state was against an order of a single judge, which quashed the election notification issued by the SEC earlier and directed the SEC to conclude the election process by December 31, 2016, besides issuing 9 directions to comply with.
Aggrieved over the indefinite extension of the tenure of Special officers and not conducting the elections despite court's order, the DMK party has filed the present petition to direct the SEC to hold the local body elections within the time frame as may fixed by the court.
