CHENNAI: THE first Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to furnish the tentative schedule for holding elections to the local bodies in the State, by August 1.
The Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar issued the direction while passing further interim orders on the appeal from the State and a PIL from the DMK, on Wednesday. The matter will come up again on August 1.
Earlier, SEC senior counsel B Kumar submitted that it is not possible to implement certain directions of Justice Kirubakaran, which included scanning and uploading in its website the affidavit of the candidates, as there will be 4.90 lakh candidates, whose affidavits running to 6 to 10 pages cannot be scanned and uploaded within three days.
Further, regarding the other directions of the single judge, the SEC has to consult with the State government and other stake-holders, he added. Advocate-General R Muthukumaraswamy submitted that as regards the consultation process, already two letters had been addressed to the SEC and it would be completed soon.
The State had incurred a loss of `175 crore due to the cancellation of the local body elections. If the elections were to be conducted after delimitation, a sum of `45 crore more would have to be spent, he said.
DMK senior counsel P Wilson informed the judges that the Supreme Court had thrice told the SEC that it can go ahead with election and it would not prevent them from doing so.
Delimitation can be done after the elections. The SEC cannot say delimitation has to be done before the election. Some of the directions, which the SEC finds it difficult to implement, were either suggestions or recommendatory in nature. The SEC cannot cite this as an excuse to prolong the election indefinitely, Wilson added.
When the Bench wanted to know the possible time frame for holding the elections assuming that the impediments like census, delimitation, population, are out of the way, SEC senior counsel replied that he would provide the answer on August 1. Kumar said the SEC requires 50 days from the date of issuing notification to the assuming of office by the candidates.