Pondy civic polls: Madras HC grants liberty to petitioners to approach SC

As the first bench comprising the Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu granted liberty to the petitioners to withdraw their applications and approach the SC, the petitioners, R Siva, Organising Secretary, DMK Puducherry Unit, MLAs J Pragesh Kumar and N Periyanan decided to withdraw their pleas. Therefore, the judges also extended by two weeks the interim stay on conducting the elections.

Senior Counsel P Wilson appeared for the DMK leader relied upon the several sections of the Puducherry Municipalities Act 1973 and The Puducherry Village And Commune Panchayat Act 1973 submitting that the act of withdrawing the reservation for BCs and STs by the Election Commission is against the Acts.

However, Vijay Narayan, counsel for the UT administration made a submission that they have not to possess clear data for reserving seats for the BCs and STs. “The UT is of an opinion to constitute a commission to study the factors for reserving seats for BCs,” he said. Vijay Narayan further said that the government on Tuesday had decided to file a fresh application before the Supreme Court seeking two-month time for completing the process of identifying the political backwardness of the BC people in Puducherry.

“Therefore, the UT has decided to seek six months of time for completing the civic polls process,” he noted.

On recording the submissions, the Acting Chief Justice observed, “It is the mistake of the government as it failed to do this exercise. We cannot do anything beyond the direction of the SC.”