SC clears decks for rural local body polls on December 27, 30

At last, elections to local bodies in TN have become a certainty after eight years as the Supreme Court has refused to stay the notification issued for polls to rural local bodies in 27 districts.
(Photo | EPS)
(Photo | EPS)

CHENNAI: At last, elections to local bodies in Tamil Nadu have become a certainty after eight years as the Supreme Court has refused to stay the notification issued for polls to rural local bodies in 27 districts. 
The SC also reduced the time given for completing delimitation in the rest of the nine districts from four months to three months. 

A bench, headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, in its order on Wednesday, said, “After hearing the arguments, we feel that the interest of justice is subserved by issuing a direction to the respondents (State government and poll panel) to apply 2011 census to all impending elections irrespective of the number of seats determined by the delimitation commission after carrying out delimitation.”

Later in the day, SEC asserted that elections to rural local bodies will be held as scheduled on December 27 and 30 since it has already complied with the directive of the Supreme Court that delimitation and reservation process should be done on the basis of 2011 census and issued notifications last year.  

However, the DMK, which moved SC against the fresh notification issued for rural local body elections, remained unconvinced about the information that the court had given a go-ahead for the polls. DMK chief MK Stalin said the full details of SC ruling is yet to be received.   

SC has given DMK severe drubbing: Min

The DMK and its allies Congress, CPI, VCK and MDMK had said that elections for local bodies should be conducted on the basis of 2011 census and the SC accepted it and gave certain directives.   In this connection, he recalled that when the DMK moved the Madras High Court in 2016, Hansraj Verma, the then Secretary to Government, in his affidavit, said reservation for local bodies were completed as per 1991 census. However, today, the State government has changed this and informed the SC that in 2016 itself, reservation had been done as per 2011 census.  

“Realising this contradiction, the apex court has now directed that elections should be conducted on the basis of 2011 census. As such, the SEC should understand the SC directive in its entirety,” Stalin said. 
In New Delhi, Law Minister CVe Shanmugam said, “The DMK has received a severe drubbing from the SC. The court has given a clear directive for conducting elections.” 

On the contention that the affidavit submitted by the State was fabricated, he said, “We have submitted documents signed by the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to prove that the delimitation has been done as per 2011 census.”

‘DMK  given a drubbing’
Law Minister CVe Shanmugam said in New Delhi, “The DMK has received a severe drubbing from the SC today. The court has given a clear directive for conducting the elections.”

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