The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (SEC), on Monday, informed the Madras High Court that elections to local bodies will be conducted by May this year. Senior Council of the Commission B. Kumar made the submission before a Division Bench of Justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and S.M. Subramaniam. On October 4, 2016, a single judge of the High Court set aside the election notification issued by the SEC dated September 26, 2016, citing non-compliance of Tamil Nadu Panchayat (Elections) Rules, 1995. As a consequence, the elections scheduled on October 17 and 19 stood cancelled.
Assailing the order, the SEC moved an appeal before a Division Bench. However, noting that the election process has already been broken, and it is as on date non-est (Does not exist) in law, the Division Bench suggested the SEC to issue fresh notification.
After dragging the appeal for almost three months, the SEC on Monday informed that the elections would be conducted by May. However, refusing to accept the tentative time proposed by the commission, the Bench insisted on a precise date on which the elections would be conducted.
