HC orders status quo for six weeks on conduct of local bodies polls in Puducherry

Directs Government of Puducherry and the election commission in the U.T. union territory to file their counter affidavits

The Madras High Court on Friday directed the State Election commission in Puducherry to maintain status quo for a period of six weeks with respect to conduct of local bodies elections in the Union Territory and file a counter affidavit by then to a batch of cases filed against not providing reservation for Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Tribes.

Justices R. Mahadevan and S. Ananthi passed the interim order following a writ petition filed by DMK MLA R. Siva, V. Velmurugan and others. Senior counsel P. Wilson argued that conduct of local bodies elections without reserving seats for the OBCs and STs would offend democracy by infracting the will of the people and the principle of inclusivity.

He recalled that the Election Commission had initially rescinded its September 22, 2021 election notification after writ petitions were filed questioning the reservation policy. Thereafter, a subsequent government notification issued in October 2021 was also put to challenge by way of writ petition which was withdrawn with liberty to approach the Supreme Court.

However, since the Supreme Court was of the view that the matter should be adjudicated first before the High Court and hence the petitioners had moved the present writ petitions.