Chennai: The Supreme Court on Monday granted four more months for Tamil Nadu State Election Commission to conduct urban local body elections in the state. The Court provided additional time while hearing a plea seeking more time to conduct the polls.
On Monday, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the State Election Commission urged the Supreme Court to provide seven months to complete urban local body elections stating that new corporations and municipalities are added to the list. He said six new corporations and 28 municipalities have been added to the list and requested time till the end of April 2022, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
The case was heard by the first bench comprising of CJI Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kholi. The CJI said that he wants to give more time even though the reasons given by the SEC counsel are very silly."Four months, final," the CJI said.
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Meanwhile, senior Minister Durai Murugan said that the urban local body election will be conducted in December. The urban local body polls are conducted to select officials for the post of mayor in districts including Chennai. The last urban body polls were conducted in 2011 and the term ended by 2016. However, the conduct of urban body polls were delayed by five years.
Earlier, the Supreme Court gave time till September 15 to hold rural local body polls in the nine newly-formed Tamil Nadu districts and said that the delay beyond September 15 will be considered as contempt of Court. However, SEC sought 35 more days to conduct polls and the rural local body polls are now scheduled for October 6 and 9.