New Delhi: In a huge setback to the DMK, the Election Commission on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it was ready to hold by-polls in Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram and Tirupparankundram Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, within a reasonable period of time but not on April 18, when the State goes to the polls.
Counsel for the Election Commission told a Bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and Abdul Nazeer that the Commission would hold the bye-polls to three constituencies within a reasonable time, without specifying any time limit. This would mean that the Commission would not hold the polls within the present election schedule upto May 19. Earlier senior counsel A.M. Singhvi and C.U. Singh, appearing for DMK Member of Parliament R.S. Bharathy submitted that the EC should be directed to hold the polls on the three seats, along with the scheduled dates of polls for Lok Sabha and other by-poll Assembly constituencies.
The bench, while taking on record the submissions of the EC's counsel, disposed of the petition and observed that the court cannot determine the timing of elections and it was for the poll panel to decide.
The petitioner sought court intervention for holding the bypolls to the three constituencies, which were left out citing pendency of cases in the Madras high court. He submitted that the EC had announced bypolls to 18 constituencies on April 18 along with the Lok Sabha polls. However, the Commission had not announced polls for the constituencies of Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram and Tirupparankundram though they also remained vacant for a long time.
Referring to the pendency of cases in respect of the three constituencies, the DMK said, as on today, there is no legal impediment as the HC had disposed of the petitions relating to the three constituencies. The DMK sought a direction to the EC to notify bypoll and publish the schedule of elections for the three constituencies.
