CHENNAI: In an indication that the election to rural local bodies in 28 districts in the state whose tenure ends in January 2025 is likely to get delayed, the state government on Saturday informed the Madras High Court that the polls would be held only after completing the process of delimitation and reservation.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran, representing the government, submitted before a division bench of Justices SS Sundar and P Dhanabal when a public interest litigation petition filed by one Muniyan came up for hearing.
He also said the respective collectors would hold meetings to discuss the matter with the stakeholders and subsequently devise the modalities for delimitation and reservation. Recording the submissions, the bench closed the petition.
The petitioner alleged the government is attempting to hold the local body polls in the first week of 2025 without reserving seats for the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes in the panchayats proportionate to their population, which he said is a gross violation of Articles 243 D and 243 T of the Constitution.
He said merger of certain village panchayats to the newly created Tiruvannamalai municipal corporation has altered the territorial limits of wards of village panchayats.
The authorities are duty bound to initiate the process of delimitation of wards and reservation of seats for the SC/ST on account of the merger of village panchayats with municipal corporations, he stated.
“The constitutional mandate of providing proportionate reservation envisaged under Article 243-D of the Constitution cannot be negated by colourable exercise of powers under the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act 1998,” the petitioner said.
He sought the court to issue a direction to the authorities concerned to hold delimitation of wards within a stipulated time and then hold the election.