The Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice to the State government and the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission(SEC) on three separate pleas moved by the DMK seeking a direction to compulsorily use electronic voting machines in local body elections, and to appoint independent District Election Officers for each district who are not working under the State government.
The DMK, represented by its organisational secretary R. S. Bharathi, also prayed the court to declare the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (second amendment) Act, 2016, and Tamil Nadu Panchayats (second amendment) Act, 2016 as unconstitutional.
The two legislations introduced amendments to the territorial divisions of city, and wards of panchayat union and altered the number of members to be returned from such divisions.
The petitioner also wanted the court to direct the authorities to conduct the civic polls according to the delimitation of wards done in 2011 census with corresponding reservation to women, SC and ST. When the plea came up for hearing, a Division Bench of Justices Huluvadi G. Ramesh and M.V. Muralidharan refused to pass any interim orders, but directed the government and the SEC to file their counter affidavit by August 1.
