CHENNAI: The First bench of the Madras High Court today directed the Commissioner of the State Election Commission to furnish the schedule for holding election to the local bodies in the States on Monday.
Irked over the failure on the part of the State government to hold the elections by November 17, 2017, the deadline fixed by the court, the bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar mandated the commission to submit the schedule quickly.
The local bodies in the state are functioning without elected representatives for nearly two years now because of the delay in conducting the polls by the commission. This is also affecting the functioning and funds for the local bodies. The state government has maintained that the delay was due to some litigation and delimitation exercises.
"Have you initiated any step to conduct the election before the cut off date?" the bench asked the government counsel when the case came up for hearing today. The bench was hearing the contempt application filed by DMK Rajya Sabha member and Propaganda secretary R S Bharathy, who wanted to punish the officials concerned for not holding the election as per the schedule fixed by the court.
The court on September 4, 2017 had directed the SEC to issue the notification for the polls on September 18 and complete the entire process by November 17.