Civic polls: HC questions grounds for reserving wards for women in Chennai corporation

The Madras High Court on Tuesday asked the Greater Chennai City Corporation to file its response by Thursday explaining whether the wards for women candidates for the upcoming local body polls are reserved on the basis of total population or on the grounds of voters list.

The first bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu had passed the direction to the GCC on hearing a plea moved by Muthu Raj, a resident of Choolaimedu, Chennai.

The petitioner challenged the reservation notification dated January 17, 2022, and prayed for a direction from the court to the GCC and the State Election Commission to reserve wards for the women on the basis of the total population in each ward.

The petitioner submitted that the wards for women were reserved without following any rules and data. “We came to know that the reservation for women has not been implemented properly. If the urban local body elections are conducted with this reservation, the very idea of providing reservation for women will turn infructuous,” the petitioner argued.

He further wanted the judges to stall the LB polls till the GCC is rectifying the issues in providing reservations to women adhering to the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act (third amendment) 1996.

On recording the submissions, the bench directed the GCC to file its response by February 3, 2022, so as to know whether the reservation for women was made on the basis of population or voter list.

Recently, when the reservation for women was challenged by Advocate Parthiban, the Madras HC quashed the reservation notification dated May 24, 2019. Since the GCC had reserved wards for women on the grounds of zone numbers and not by considering the corporation as the whole unit, the HC set aside the notification. Further, it directed the GCC to reserve wards only on the basis of considering the corporation as the whole unit.