Irked by the inordinate delay in conducting local body polls in the State, the Madras High Court has directed the State Election Commission to furnish the schedule for holding civic polls on Monday (6 August). Also, it has warned that contempt of court proceedings will be initiated against the officials if this deadline is missed. This shows that the court is in no mood to tolerate any more delay in the conduct of civic elections.
To understand how serious the High Court is about the issue, sample these questions posed by the first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee: “Has the Supreme Court given stay order preventing the election from being held? If so, where is the copy of the verdict? What is the current status of the case that is happening in the apex court? Have you initiated any step to conduct the election before the cut-off date? Do you think that it is up to you to decide at what extent court orders can be implemented?”
The sad reality is that local bodies in Tamilnadu are functioning without elected representatives for nearly two years now because of the delay in conducting the polls. This is also affecting the functioning and funds for civic bodies. Though the SEC was busy with delimitation and other processes which ‘resulted in the delay’, it should conduct the polls at the earliest to ensure that grassroots-level democracy is protected.