The Madras High Court today adjourned a plea filed by the State Election Commission (SEC) challenging a single judge's order directing it to issue a fresh notification for holding local body elections and complete the poll process before December 31.
The petition by the SEC challenging the single judge order, which set aside the local body elections, came up before a division bench, which postponed the hearing of the appeal after pongal holidays in January.
On October 4 last, the court had in its interim order declared the notification for civic polls in the state, scheduled for October 17 and 19, as null and void, holding that it violated the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Election Rules.
It then directed the SEC to issue a fresh notification for holding local body elections and complete the poll process before December 31.
The court gave the directions on a writ petition filed by DMK leader and Rajya Sabha member RS Barathy.
The single judge also ordered the amendment of rule 26 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayat's (Election) Rules 1995 by insertion of a sub-rule to incorporate the SEC notification, mandating the candidates who desire to contest to file a separate affidavit furnishing complete information under five categories, including criminal background, at the time of filing nominations.
When the matter came up today, the SEC submitted that the order of setting aside the September 26 notification issued for holding civic polls had resulted in grave miscarriage of justice.
The single judge had failed to see that once election notification is published, the entire state machinery can be requisitioned by the election commission for election-related work, it said.
Therefore, it is not desirable to prolong the period as it may result in administrative inconvenience, it submitted.
The observation of the single judge that the commission had acted with "unwarranted hurry" is not justified in the facts of the case, it said.
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