CHENNAI: The State Election Commission (SEC) will be in a position to conduct elections to the local bodies, as stipulated, before July 31, subject to certain conditions, an affidavit, filed by the SEC in the Madras High Court, said on Monday.
On completion of the process of preparation of the electoral rolls in pursuance of the constitutional provisions by the end of May, the SEC will be in a position to complete the process of election with the existing delimitation and reservation by July-end after due consultations with the government as envisaged in rule 24 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Elections) Rules and 22 of the Tamil Nadu Town Panchayats Rules, for issuance of election notification, the affidavit added.
The affidavit was filed in response to the direction from the second bench of the Madras High Court last week to file a sworn affidavit to the effect that the elections to the local bodies in the State would be completed by July 31.
This direction followed the allegation from senior counsel P Wilson for DMK working president MK Stalin, one of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitioners, that the SEC was not interested in holding the elections in the near future and that it had thrown to the winds the earlier directions of the High Court.
And the bench of Justices Huluvadi G Ramesh and RMT Teekka Raman posted the matter for further hearing on July 14.