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Submit civic poll schedule by August 6 or face action: High Court
Coming down heavily on the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) for failing to hold the local body elections despite several court directions, the Madras High Court directed TNSEC to furnish the election schedule by Monday or face action.
By
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Chennai
Rapping the TNSEC with a question as to whether they think it us up to them to decide as to what extent court orders can be implemented, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, said, “We have clearly mentioned in the order that the election shall be conducted based on 2001 census. As per your submissions before the Supreme Court, even the present delimitation process should have been completed by January 2018.”
The matter relates to the contempt petition filed by RS Bharathi of DMK against Malik Feroz Khan, commissioner, TNSEC and Rajasekhar, secretary, TNSEC, for not abiding by the first bench’s order on September 4, 2017, to issue the poll notification on September 18 and complete the entire process by November 17, 2017.
Earlier, when the matter came up for hearing, the bench sought the counsels appearing for either side to come out clean on the factual matrix of the case pending before the Supreme Court in this regard.
To this, Wilson submitted that the case before the Supreme Court has nothing to do with the present case. Further, pointing out that even the Supreme Court had offered the go ahead to the Madras High Court’s order directing the conduct of elections, Wilson contended that the issue before the Supreme Court pertained to the larger question of delimitation and nothing per se in holding the elections.
Further, asking SEC’s counsel to show whether there is any stay on the first bench’s order by the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice heading the special bench, said, “There is neither a special leave petition nor an appeal in this regard and it’s a case that is merely pending with no stay,” and asked TNSEC’s counsel, “What are you doing?” To this, the counsel replied that de-limitation process is going on.
However, the bench was unwilling to accept the aspect pertaining to delimitation as an answer sought for the election schedule. While the counsel sought for some more time, the Chief Justice observed that the special bench cannot sit for five times for this case, “when you should have actually come with the schedule”. Following this, the counsel agreed to come with the schedule by Monday.
Wilson who pressed for contempt proceedings against the official said that owing to the non-implementation of the order as much as Rs 4,000 crore which is due to local bodies in the state from the Centre is going to waste. However, the bench while ordering the release of the schedule, remarked that even otherwise TNSEC must face contempt.
The local bodies in the state are functioning without elected representatives for nearly two years now because of the delay in conducting the polls by the commission. The state government has maintained that the delay was due to some litigation and delimitation exercises.
DELAY DILEMMA
- The matter relates to the contempt petition filed by RS Bharathi of DMK against Malik Feroz Khan, commissioner, TNSEC and Rajasekhar, secretary, TNSEC, for not abiding by the first bench’s order to issue the poll notification and complete the process by 2017.
- When the matter came up for hearing earlier, the bench sought the counsels appearing for either side to come out clean on the factual matrix of the case pending before the Supreme Court in this regard.
- Local bodies in TN are functioning without elected representatives for nearly two years because of the delay in conducting the polls. The State has maintained that the delay was due to litigation and delimitation exercises.
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