Civic polls case: High Court questions maintainability of contempt plea

When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, a division bench, comprising Justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and S M Subramaniam, raised the aspect as to how the petition was maintainable when TNSEC has time till May 14 to comply with the court order. 

Senior counsel P Wilson appearing for the petitioner R S Bharathi argued that the petition was maintainable since the Commission has not commenced the election process till date and that by itself established that they would be unable to complete the election process by the said date. 

He submitted that despite a notice being sent to TNSEC on February 28 there was no response and the process was yet to commence, which amounted to wilful disobedience in complying with the order of the court. 

However, when Wilson pointed out that he has various SC judgements in his favour, the Bench then adjourned the petition to April 18 for filing additional documents supporting his contentions. 

On Feb 22, a division bench of the court directed TNSEC to conduct the local body polls no later than May 14. The SEC was also directed to comply with the directions issued earlier by a single judge, including making mandatory the filing of affidavits declaring criminal antecedents of candidates and uploading them on the SEC website.