The Election Commission on Tuesday informed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that it had time till April 24 to decide on holding the byelection to 18 Assembly seats, where vacancies arose after the disqualification of rebel AIADMK legislators under the anti-defection law.
A public interest litigation petition was filed seeking a direction to conduct the byelection to the 18 seats. The petitioner, Vedha Dhamodharan of Madurai, complained that following the disqualification, the constituencies had no system to redress grievances. The delay in electing representatives had affected the people, he said.
A Division Bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and P.D. Audikesavalu took note of the submission made by the Election Commission.
Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan had written to the Election Commission requesting that the byelection should not be held immediately as the State was recovering from Cyclone Gaja.
