A Division Bench of the Madras High Court, hearing the appeal moved by the State Election Commission (SEC) assailing an order setting aside the local body election notifications, on Thursday said that the chain of election process has been already broken and that the SEC has also kept the process in abeyance and hence there is no other option except to issue fresh notifications.
The Division Bench Justices Huluvadi G. Ramesh and R. Parthiban then posted the appeal to October 18,2016, for further hearing.
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 stand cancelled.
The interim order was passed on a plea moved by the principal Opposition party – the DMK, seeking adequate reservation for Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the impending civic elections as mandated by the constitution. The SEC was directed to issue fresh notifications and complete the election process by December 31, 2016.
Assailing the order, the SEC moved an appeal contending that the election process has gone to scrutiny of nomination and once the election process has commenced, under Article 243 (O) of the Constitution, there can be no judicial order on any of the process.
