Madras High Court cancels local body polls in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, Oct 4 (IANS) The Madras High Court on Tuesday cancelled the local body elections in Tamil Nadu over irregularities in the poll notification.

Elections to the local bodies were slated for October 17 and 19, 2016, and a total of 497,840 nominations were filed.

The DMK had moved to the Madras High Court alleging inadequate reservation of seats for the Scheduled Tribes and had raised objection to the hurried manner in which the polls were called.

Setting aside the poll notification, the court directed the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) to issue a fresh notification and conduct the elections by December 2016.

The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission announced the polls on September 25 and filing of nominations started from the next day. The last day for filing nominations was October 3.

Political parties have questioned the urgency with which the poll process was carried on.

Several political parties have welcomed the court decision.

In a statement, PMK founder S. Ramadoss said the court order is welcome as it protects the democracy.

He urged the state Election Commission and the Tamil Nadu government not to appeal against the court order.