Civic polls on May 15, State Election Commission tells High Court

The division bench comprising Nooty Ramamohana Rao and Justice SM Subramanian, which has been hearing the appeal moved by the SEC, on noting SEC’s submission about the election date said it would pass an interim order in this regard on Tuesday as waiting for the final order would take at least a month. However, the bench which made certain scathing remarks about the veracity of stopping the election in the first place, made it clear that the observations made in the open court were not meant for public consumption and hence should not be reported. 

The local body elections were to be held on October 17 and 19 last but was stayed by Justice Kirubakaran based on DMK’s plea, that the election notification was issued on a Sunday evening and the process of receiving the nominations started the next day thereby creating an advantage for the ruling party, which released the candidates list on Sunday night itself. 

However, the judge had directed the State Election Commission to issue a fresh notification and hold the election before December 31, 2016, which failed to materialise.