Cannot stall urban LB polls against apex court verdict: Madras HC

The first bench of the Madras High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and PD Audikesavalu observed this on hearing a plea moved by Dr M Nakkeeran, former joint-director of Tamil Nadu Medical Recruitment Board.

“As the Supreme Court has passed orders to the State Election Commission to issue notifications for conducting the local body elections within four months in September, we could not pass any orders against the ruling of the SC,” the bench observed.

The judges also sought the litigant approach the SC for postponing the elections.Senior Counsel S Prabhakaran appearing for the petitioner argued that the pandemic situation is worsening day by day and containment zones have been increasing.

“Conducting the local body elections during this pandemic would cause grave danger to the lives of the people. There are about 30,000 containment zones that have come in the city,” the petitioner submitted.

However, the judges asked what would be the problem in TN despite several states including Punjab and UP going for the state assembly polls.“We cannot interfere in the election affairs and we could not pass any directions to postpone the polls, the judges said.