Chennai: The Madras high court set aside the election notifications issued by the state election commission for conduct of the Local Body Election on October 17 and 19 and directed it to issue fresh notification, conduct elections and complete the election process by December 31.
While upholding the government orders relating to reservation to various posts in the local body election, Justice N. Kirubakaran said that to maintain purity in public life he moulds the relief and gives the directions. Passing orders on petitions from DMK represented by its Organization Secretary, R.S.Bharathi and two others, the judge said, “Election notifications are vitiated for non-compliance of Rule 24 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayat (Elections) Rules”,
Pointing out that the present term of the local body was to be over by the end of October, the judge directed the state government to appoint Special Officers to exercise powers and discharge functions of local bodies till election was over and new elected representatives take charge.
The state government and state election commission shall look into and decide about complaints regarding reservation, de-reservation of posts, deletion or addition of genuine eligible voters and enrolment of bogus voters etc., before conducting the election, after issuance of fresh election notifications, the judge added.
