The State government on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that delimitation of local bodies in the State was in its final stages and that elections would be conducted after the completion of the entire process. The submission was made when a public interest litigation petition came up for admission.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) P.H. Arvindh Pandian made the submission before a Division Bench of Justices V. Parthiban and P.D. Audikesavalu during the hearing of the PIL petition filed by Change India, an NGO, against the government’s act of implementing major schemes in the absence of elected local bodies.
In an affidavit filed on behalf of the petitioner organisation, its director A. Narayanan stated that the Greater Chennai Corporation had passed the annual budget behind closed doors for the second consecutive year and such acts were being done by government officials appointed as special officers. “At this rate, the coffers of the local bodies will be empty as and when elections are held, and when new elected representatives take over the reins, they will have literally no work to do as all the resources would have been used by the schemes conceived and executed by the illegal special officers,” the affidavit read.
After hearing arguments advanced by senior counsel N.L. Rajah representing the petitioner organisation, the judges ordered notices to the State government as well as the Greater Chennai Corporation returnable by June 8 and asked the AAG to ensure that a counter-affidavit was filed by then.
