Following the Madras High court’s order to quash the civic polls notification, the State Election Commission has filed a petition seeking a stay on the order passed by the High court on Tuesday.
The affidavit states, “All the officers of Elections once the process is underway under 243 (O), there can be no judicial order on any of the process.”
The petition also said that as per article 243 (K) of the constitution of India the elections needs to be conducted every five years and the elections needs to be completed before October 24, 2016.
Justice N Kirubhakaran on Tuesday had taken up the petition of DMK’s organisation secretary RS Bharathi asking to cancel the election notification. The court asked the state election commission to quash the notification and publish fresh notifications before December 30.
The petitioner had claimed that the State Election Commission had announced the polls on September 25, 2016 and the process of receiving nominations began from September 26, without giving any proper time to political parties.
The counsel of the petitioner had also stated that the state government had failed to give reservations to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community in the local body elections.
The case might be taken up for hearing on Thursday by a Division Bench of Justices Huluvadi G. Ramesh and V. Parthiban if an urgent mention is made on behalf of the State Election Commission, according to The Hindu.