New Delhi, June 22 (PTI) Granting it more time, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) to conduct by September 15 the local body polls in nine new districts carved out of four existing ones or face contempt action.

A vacation bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said that state poll panel will have to issue notification for the election to the local bodies, holding polls and declaring the results by September 15.

“We grant extension of time till 15th September, 2021 to complete the entire process including publication / notification of election schedule and the result thereof before 15th September, 2021 as the Constitutional mandate to conduct elections in the time bound manner cannot be defeated in this manner,” the bench said.

The top court was hearing an application filed by Election Commission of India seeking extension of six months to hold elections to the local bodies in the nine-newly carved out districts of the state.

It noted the order of the top court passed on December 6, 2019 and said that instead of four months given to hold the elections, the poll panel has taken 18 months.

“Instead of four months' time, the respondents' have taken a little more than eighteen months and now seeks six months' time to complete the exercise of conducting elections,” the bench said.

It also noted that the tenure of the local bodies expired in 2018-19 and since then there were no new elected representatives.

The bench said that if the order of the court is not complied with, then the poll body will be liable for contempt action.

Senior advocate P S Narasimha, appearing for the Election Commission of India (ECI), said the 2019 order could not be implemented as priority was given to assembly elections in the state and later the focus shifted to West Bengal assembly election.

The bench said local body polls are conducted by SECs and not by the ECI.

Narasimha said that the state is still recording one of the highest figures of COVID infections and therefore some time be given to hold the elections in these nine districts.

The bench said that COVID now-a-days has become an excuse in every other matter and elections can very well be held when the political parties want it.

“It will be better if you hold the elections by September 15 or we will initiate contempt action for non-compliance,” the bench said.

Narasimha said that they do not have any intention of non-compliance of order and the court may not record contempt part in the order.

He said the state will first have to hold the delimitation exercise in these nine districts, then issue notification for elections and hold the polls for which it may need some more time.

The bench, however, refused to give more time to state poll panel and asked it to comply with the order.

On December 11, 2019, the top court had directed the Tamil Nadu government and the state poll panel to conduct upcoming local bodies' election by relying on 2011 census instead of the 1991 census as alleged by opposition party DMK.

The court's earlier order had come on the plea of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which had then sought quashing of the notification, issued by the state poll panel on December 7, 2019, for local body election alleging that it did not provide quota for women and SC and ST candidates as per the 2011 census and was using 1991 census for this purpose.

The top court, on December 6, 2019, had put on hold the elections for the local bodies in nine new districts, carved out of four existing ones, in the state for complying with legal formalities such as delimitation and reservation in four months.

The top court had modified its earlier order and asked the delimitation commission to conclude the delimitation exercise within three months instead of four months in nine districts.

It had said however that TNSEC could proceed with the elections to all panchayats at village, intermediate and district levels in the remaining 31 revenue districts of the southern state.

(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)