Will complete civic poll exercise by July end: State Election Commission

In response to a direction issued by a division bench comprising Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice N Sathish Kumar to file an affidavit pledging that the local body elections will be held by July end, the TNSEC commission filed an affidavit in this regard with a rider that the State Election Commission (SEC) will be in a position to complete the process of election to local bodies with the existing delimitation and reservation by July 2017 after due consultation with the Government. 

However, on pointing out that the SEC is not the appropriate authority for acting upon the instructions given by a single judge, who postponed the elections at the first place, said the government has been directed to amend rule 26 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Elections) Rules 1996 incorporating the requirement to file an affidavit showing the criminal antecedents of the candidates. 

Also, the judge has directed the Government to dispose of all the all the complaints regarding reservation, de-reservation of posts and rotation.