DMK files contempt petition in SC against TN Election Commissioner over local body polls

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Tuesday filed a second contempt petition in the Supreme Court against Tamil Nadu State Election Commissioner for allegedly not complying with the top court's orders pertaining to reservations in the local body polls.

The DMK moved the apex court seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the officials for the deliberate and willful disobedience of the order issued by the Supreme Court on December 11.

"Despite the apex court's order directing the respondents to provide proportionate reservation at all levels, in accordance with Rule 6 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayat, but in a tearing hurry, the respondents proceeded to conduct for election on the very next day (December 7), in deliberate and willful disobedience of the above-noted directions of this court," the DMK said in its petition.

The petition said that despite the court's orders, the respondents proceeded to provide reservation on the basis of the 2016 notification, which is based on the 1991 census, although a fresh census had been carried out in 2011 and a fresh delimitation exercise was also carried out in 2018 in the state.

The DMK has made the Tamil Nadu State Election Commissioner, Chairman, Chief Secretary and Secretary and Additional Secretary of the Tamil Nadu state as the parties in the contempt petition.

The Supreme Court had on December 6 said that the local body elections in Tamil Nadu can go ahead as per the earlier schedule of December 27 and 30, but it had put on hold elections in nine newly formed districts.

A three-judge bench of the apex court had also directed that the delimitation process should be conducted in these nine districts of Tamil Nadu as soon as possible and local body elections are held there within four months.

The orders had come on a petition filed by the DMK on December 2 seeking its direction to stay the Tamil Nadu state local body election notification.

( With inputs from ANI )