DMK moves High Court on civic polls; wants central/PSU staff on duty

The Madras High Court on Monday issued a notice to Tamil Nadu government and the State Election Commission on three PILs related to coming local body elections filed by a DMK MP seeking among other things deployment of central and PSU staff for poll duty and use of electronic voting machines.

DMK Rajya Sabha member R S Bharathi, who apprehended irregularities by ruling AIADMK during the polls due in October this year, also sought reservation of seats as per 2011 census and posting nomination and affidavit details of candidates on the SEC website.

A division bench of Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice M V Muralidharan issued notice to the state government and the SEC, returnable by August 1.

The petitioner said though the government had tabled several policy notes in the assembly in 2014 itself confirming that it was in possession of the 2011 census data, it had on June 22 last got two bills passed in the assembly by voice vote to take 2001 census as the basis for delimitation and reservation of SC/STs and women wards in the local bodies.

Bharathi wanted the court to direct the authorities to follow the 2011 census for holding the polls.

In his second PIL, he sought compulsory use of EVMs citing incidents of booth-capturing and rigging in elections where ballot papers had been used.

The third petition sought deployment of independent district election officers not working under the state government. They should work for either central government or public sector undertakings or deputed from other states exclusively for the local body polls.