Direction to conduct civic polls only to SEC not authorities: TN govt

The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday submitted in the Madras High Court that the direction to conduct the local body elections was only to the State Election Commission and not to government authorities.

Aryama Sundaram, senior counsel appearing for the state government, made the submission during arguments before a special bench, comprising Justice M Sathyanarayana and Justice M Sundar.

It was constituted to hear a contempt plea filed by the DMK against the government and State Election Commission for not complying with a court order directing that the local body polls be completed by November 17, 2017.

Sundaram said the state government officials cannot be held under contempt for disobeying the court order in connection with local body polls as the ordinance passed by the government mandated conducting the elections only after completing the delimitation process on the basis of 2011 census.

 

Moreover, the direction was only to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (SEC) and not to state government authorities, he said.

"Therefore, disobedience on part of the state government authorities does not even arise," he said.

"Similarly, the ordinance passed by the government mandating the SEC to conduct elections only after completing delimitation process based on the 2011 census enabled them not to comply with the court order."

Arguing further that the State was empowered to pass legislation, Sundaram said the legislation was not challenged or declared as ultra vires or unconstitutional by the court.

If an action of the legislature is questioned by the court, it would be worse than the legislature questioning the actions of the court, he said.

As to the allegations of mala fide on part of the government in passing the legislation, Sundaram submitted that actions of the legislature cannot be mala fide and therefore, it cannot be questioned on the grounds of mala fide.

The bench then posted the matter for further hearing to January 9.

The contempt plea alleged wilful disobedience on part of the state and the SEC in conducting election to the local bodies.