Pondy SEC seeks four months in apex court to hold LB polls

The local body elections were held in the UT in 2006. After that, for 10 years, the local body election was not held and the Apex Court directed to hold the polls by October end.

The Supreme Court in April this year disposed of contempt of court petition filed by a Mahe-based advocate Ashok Kumar against the Puducherry government for failing to honour its order passed in 2018 and directed the SEC to conduct elections in five municipalities and 10 panchayats.

The SEC issued notification for the elections on September 22 and citing irregularities in the allocation of wards, the Madras High Court stalled the poll process. Later, the SEC issued a fresh notification after withdrawing reservation for BCs and STs which drew widespread protests and the Madras High court again stalled it on October 11 on the grounds of violation of the Constitutional mandate of providing reservations. Following this, the SEC sought four months from the SC to rectify all anomalies and hold the polls.