New Delhi: In a huge setback to the DMK, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it was ready to hold bypolls in Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram and Tirupparankundram Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, within a reasonable period of time but not on April 18, when the state goes to the polls.
The counsel for the EC told a bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and Abdul Nazeer that the commission would hold the bypolls to three constituencies within a reasonable time, without specifying any time limit. This would mean that the commission would not hold the polls within the present election schedule up to May 19. Earlier, senior counsel A.M. Singhvi and C.U. Singh, appearing for DMK member of Parliament R.S. Bharathy, submitted that the EC should be directed to hold the polls for the three seats along with the scheduled dates of polls to Lok Sabha and other bypoll Assembly constituencies.
The bench, while taking on record the submissions of the EC’s counsel, disposed of the petition and observed that the court cannot determine the timing of elections and it was for the poll panel to decide.
The petitioner had sought court intervention for holding the bypolls to the three constituencies, which were left out citing pendency of cases in the Madras high court.
He submitted that the EC had announced bypolls to 18 constituencies on April 18 along with the Lok Sabha polls. However, it had not announced polls for the Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram and Tirupparankundram constituencies though they also remain vacant for a long time.
