SC put local body polls on hold in 9 new districts in TN

NEW DELHI: The apex court of India put the elections for local bodies on hold in the nine newly created districts in the State of Tamil Nadu today, on December 6, 2019. The Supreme Court gave four-months-time for the districts to comply with legal formalities such as delimitation and reservation. Although, there will be legal impediment in holding local body polls for other districts in the state, the SC bench said.

The SC bench headed by SA Bobde, Chief Justice of India considered the state government’s suggestion to hold the local body polls in the newly created nine districts for complying with legal formalities such as a fresh delimitation exercise and for deciding the issue of reservation for women and SC/ST candidates.

The apex court directed the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) to conduct the legal formalities needed and conclude the same in four months.

The TNSEC announced on November 2, that the local body polls in the State of Tamil Nadu will be held in two phases on December 27 and 30 without complying with the formalities.

On this, the SC asked the State to either agree to keep the division of the districts in abeyance or not hold the local body polls for the nine districts.

The SC gave out the order after a plea filed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), looking for a direction for the state authorities to “carry out delimitation, reservation and rotation process and fulfil all other legal requirements before issuing any election notifications and conducting elections” for local bodies in the state.