Chennai, Sep 24 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Friday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to respond to the suggestions made by AIADMK party for holding the two-phase local body elections in the nine districts of Tamil Nadu.

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The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu gave the direction, while admitting a PIL from I S Inbadurai, the deputy secretary of the Election Wing of the AIADMK, today.

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Rural local body elections are scheduled on October 6 and 9 in nine districts of the state including Kancheepuram, Vellore and Tenkasi.

Among other things, the petition prayed for a direction to the SEC to hold the election in a single phase, employ central government officials drawn from other States as 'observers', install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras and to deploy CRPF or CISF personnel during the polling, storing and counting of votes.

"The petition is by a leading political party in the State that held power till recently. The immediate grievance is in the State Election Commission failing to respond to several suggestions put forth by the petitioning party to such commission in respect of the forthcoming elections to local bodies. To the extent that the suggestions require some measures to be taken by the SEC, as were taken in course of the immediate previous local bodies' elections, the SEC should ensure that such measures are put in place. In any event, the SEC should respond to the petitioner's representation by September 29," the bench said and posted the matter for further hearing on September 30.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)