Chennai

On recording the same, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy granted two more weeks for the Tamil Nadu government to file counter to writ petitions filed by DMK principal secretary KN Nehru and MNM leader AG Mourya for not conducting grama sabha meetings.

Nehru’s counsel NR Elango submitted that the meetings were prohibited with an oblique motive of stifling dissent as the gram sabhas had decided to pass resolutions against the contentious farm acts, the draft of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification and other issues.

He contended this “interference in the affairs of the village panchayats” to be prima facie illegal and against the principles of democracy, local self-governance and self-determination. When the issue was raised after the cancellation of the October 2 gram sabha, the government had cited COVID-19 restrictions as the reason.

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