HC dismisses pleas against local body polls dismissed

Chennai, Oct 5 (UNI) Madras High Court today dismissed as many as 13 writ petitions challenging the conduct of local body elections, scheduled to be held on October 13 and 15.

While some petitioners complained of alleged improper conduct of the Returning Officer in rejecting nomination papers of the petitioners, others challenged the refusal to allot the election symbol of the party to which they belonged.

Dismissing the petitions, Mr Justice K Chandru said it was an admitted fact that polls to local bodies had been notified and the process was on. It would be difficult to interdict the process with any order of this court to stultify the election, he ruled.

Article 243-O dealing with Panchayat Election and Article 243-2A on Municipality elections had imposed a condition in interdicting the poll process when it was on and relegated affected parties to take recourse to the mode of election petition after the process was completed. Petitioners could approach appropriate forum with election petitions after polls were over, the judge added.

UNI XR AA VD VC1930