CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has allowed Puducherry to withdraw the local body poll notification and issue a fresh one to hold the elections expeditiously by an order of the Supreme Court.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu, however, on Tuesday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) of the UT to remove the anomalies in providing reservations to Scheduled Castes (SCs) before fresh notifications are issued for conducting the elections.
“The ASG submits that the SEC of Puducherry withdraws the notification dated September 22. Accordingly, the SEC is permitted to withdraw the relevant notification and be permitted to issue a fresh notification calling for the election of municipalities, commune panchayats and village panchayats by providing for reservations...,” the bench said in its order on Tuesday.
The bench hoped that the anomalies are now removed and the proposed notification carries no mistakes.
The court granted nod for withdrawal of two notifications regarding the conduct of the polls and provision of reservation of seats in municipalities and commune panchayats after the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) R Sankaranarayanan submitted that the UT administration has decided to do so.
He added that the polls would be held expeditiously, before the time given by the Supreme Court ends, without reservation for BCs and STs to meet the deadline.
Local body polls in Puducherry were notified to be conducted in three phases -- 21, 25, and 28 October.
The poll notification and reservation of seats for SCs, BCs and women were challenged by two petitioners -- J Pregash Kumar, a sitting MLA, and N Periannan.
Pregash Kumar stated that wards no 22, 24, 28, and 33 in Pondicherry municipality were reserved for SCs/women and these wards have a lesser population of SCs whereas wards 6, 13, 17, 23 with a higher population of the community were not reserved.
Citing the flaws, many of the aspiring candidates approached the UT’s election commission, but it was evasive and not inclined to set right the errors, he said.