The Madras High Court was on Friday informed that the State government would take an appropriate decision on the conduct of gram sabha meetings across the State on January 26 in accordance with the Tamil Nadu Grama Sabha (Quorum and Procedure for Convening and Conducting of Meetings) Rules of 1998.
The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy took note of the submission made by Additional Advocate General (AAG) S.R. Rajagopal, and adjourned by three weeks the writ petitions filed by the DMK and Makkal Needhi Maiam.
The petitions were filed last year when the gram sabha meetings scheduled to be held on October 2 were cancelled, citing the threat of COVID-19.
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Claiming that the meetings were essential for local governance, the two parties had approached the court, seeking a direction to the government to conduct the meetings.
Appearing on behalf of the State, the AAG sought two weeks more to file a counter affidavit. However, advocate Vijayan Subramanian, who was representing the MNM, insisted on hearing the case before January 26 and feared that the government might not allow the gram sabha to be conducted even on the Republic Day as mandated under the rules.
Though the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act of 1994 requires gram sabha meetings to be conducted at least twice a year, the executive instructions issued by the government state that they would be conducted on January 26, May 1, August 15 and October 2. Therefore, the government was duty-bound to conduct the meet on Thursday, he said. In reply, the AAG said the government would take an appropriate call on the issue.
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