Chennai: The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government officials who are involved in the election work, to ensure that the rural local body elections in nine districts are conducted in a fair manner.
According to a report in the New Indian Express, the observation was made by the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Audikesavalu while disposing of a petition filed by the opposition party AIADMK. The court said that the government authorities are to make sure a fair and free poll so that there are no complaints or grievances.
The report said that the court had appreciated both the advocate general R Shanmugasundaram who was representing the state government, and former advocate general Vijay Narayan, who was representing the petitioner, for making their arguments in a gracious manner. The court said that it hoped that the rural local body elections were also conducted in the same spirit as addressed in the court, the report said.
According to the report, the court said that the details of the location of the counting centres and strong rooms would be made public to the political parties as agreed by the advocate general.
Earlier, Vijay Narayan representing AIADMK argued that the list of vulnerable polling booths were not disclosed in the document submitted by the government.
Local body elections are scheduled to take place in the rural areas of nine districts - Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Ranipet, Vellore, Tirupathur, Villupura, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi - in two phase on October 6 and 9.