DMK chief MK Stalin said on Saturday that the party is compelled to approach the courts once again, following the State Election Commission’s notification for rural local body polls in all but nine districts.
The State Election Commission (SEC) announced on Saturday that polls for rural local bodies across Tamil Nadu, except in nine districts, will be held in two phases on December 27 and 30, 2019. While the SEC had already announced polls, the old notification was cancelled and a new notification was issued after the DMK approached the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of polls. The main opposition party cited non-completion of delimitation and reservation of seats for SC/ST and women categories.
However, the DMK wants that all the local body elections be held together after the delimitation process is completed.
In a statement, Stalin said, “The notification for polls has been issued without following the Supreme Court’s verdict. We are left with no option but to approach the court again seeking justice to conduct polls afterwards delimitation and reservation of seats.”
The Supreme Court, on Friday, ordered that the local body elections announced by the SEC be postponed in nine districts in Tamil Nadu that have undergone changes— Kallakurichi, Tenkasi, Tirupattur, Ranipet, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Tirunelveli, Vellore and Kancheepuram. The government of Tamil Nadu had created five new districts from four big districts.
Earlier, the DMK chief had urged the SEC to declare elections for the local bodies after complying fully with December 6 order of the Supreme Court. The DMK told the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission that Supreme Court had directed it and the state government to follow Rule 6 of Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Reservation of Seats and Rotation of Reserved Seats) Rules 1995 while conducting the local body elections. In its petition to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission, the DMK contended that only after delimitation, identifying reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Women in the local bodies for the state as a whole, polls for local bodies cannot be held.
“The state as a whole has to be taken as one unit and reservation should be applied,” DMK said.
According to DMK, if the State Election Commission or the state government misreads judgement and restricts it to the newly formed districts and fails to follow the directions of the Supreme Court in true letter and spirit, the same would amount to a violation of court orders and would be contemptuous.
Source: The News Minute