CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday told the State government that there was no bar on the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) in issuing a notification for holding urban local body polls in TN as the court had not granted an interim stay on it.
The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu told this to advocate general (AG) R Shanmugasundaram when he wanted the court to expedite disposal of a petition filed by advocate Parthiban that challenged the reservation of seats for women in excess of 50 per cent in Greater Chennai Corporation.
The AG said the Supreme Court had set a deadline of Jan. 27 for issuing the poll notification. According to the petitioner, while 16 wards were reserved for SC women, another 16 wards were reserved for SC general and 89 for women general.
These account for 105 wards for women and it is not in consonance with the 50 per cent quota cap for women under the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2016. The Greater Chennai Corporation has a total of 200 wards. The petitioner had alleged that a wrong calculation was made to allocate 89 wards to women (general) and 79 to men from the 168 general wards. It should have been 84 each, the petitioner said.