Chennai: Noting that no local body elections had been held in the Union territory of Puducherry for about 14 years, a former MP from the UT moved Madras high court seeking direction to the territorial administration to expedite the civic poll process.Disposing of the plea moved by M Ramadoss, president of the Puducherry Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan directed Puducherry govt on Thursday to ensure that the process is completed as expeditiously as possible.Responding, Puducherry govt submitted that it is conscious of the constitutional importance of elected local bodies and has no intention to delay local body elections. However, the conduct of local body elections must be preceded by a legally sustainable reservation framework. A one-man-commission constituted for the purpose has submitted its report and govt is progressing the matter, it said.“The office of the state election commission is vacant and upon finalisation of the reservation framework, the same will be transmitted to the state election commission for allotment and rotation of reserved wards. It will take consequential steps for conduct of local body elections in accordance with law, for which 24 months time is required,” the govt said. It added that the report of the commission requires detailed scrutiny before any final reservation notification is issued.Recording the submissions, the bench passed the order.
