The Supreme Court on Monday prima facie expressed its objection to extending by six or seven months the time for conducting elections to the urban local bodies in Tamil Nadu.
A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, asked the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission to file an affidavit explaining the reasons for the plea for an extension of time. The Bench decided to hear the matter after two days.
“You have gone for Assembly elections, Parliament elections, election rallies... But you will have excuses only about holding local body elections,” the Bench told the State Election Commission.
The State Election Commission said the elections to the rural local bodies in the nine new districts would be completed by October 12, and it would need a few months to prepare for the elections to the urban local bodies, factoring in the COVID-19 situation.
In June, the court directed the State Election Commission to complete the delayed local bodies elections in nine districts by September 15. It pointed out that the notification had been issued way back in 2019. The tenure of the previous local bodies had also expired.
In December last year, the court granted an extension of six months to complete the delimitation and conduct the elections in the nine districts. The court ordered the completion of the delimitation in three months. The districts are Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Tirupathur, Ranipet, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi. The elections have been scheduled in these districts for October 6 and 9.
