New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) The Supreme Court Monday took strong note of Tamil Nadu State Election Commission"s (TNSEC) plea seeking 6 to 7 months more for concluding processes related to local bodies elections, saying the government can go for all elections except the local bodies. “The government can do anything which it wants to do. But whenever the issue of local bodies elections come up, they say, no, no,” a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana observed while hearing the plea. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the state poll panel, said the entire work force was busy with the assembly polls in the state in February and March and then COVID-19 hit the work related to the local bodies elections. After hearing brief submissions, the bench, also comprising justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, sought the response of petitioner S Shankar, who had initially filed the PIL seeking holding of local body polls in the state, within two day on the plea of the state poll panel. “This court vide order dated June 22, 2021 while disposing of the miscellaneous application, granted extension of time till 15th September, 2021 to complete the entire process including publication/notification of election schedule and the result thereof before 15th September, 2021 as the Constitutional mandate to conduct elections in the time bound manner cannot be defeated in any manner,” the bench said in its order. The order took note of the September 13 notification of the TNSEC which said that no order was required to be passed as elections are under way. “So far as prayer (ii) in the said application is concerned, Senior counsel appearing for Mr. S. Shankar is directed to file an affidavit within a period of two days from today. List the matter after two days,” the order said. The state poll panel seeks time for carrying out the preparatory works to complete the election process as ordered by top court. A vacation bench, on June 22, had granted one more opportunity to the TNSEC to conduct by September 15 the local body polls in nine new districts carved out of four existing ones and had warned it of contempt action. It had said that state poll panel will have to issue notification for the election to the local bodies, holding polls and declaring the results by September 15. “We grant extension of time till 15th September, 2021 to complete the entire process including publication / notification of election schedule and the result thereof before 15th September, 2021 as the Constitutional mandate to conduct elections in the time bound manner cannot be defeated in this manner,” the bench had said. The top court was then hearing an application filed by the TNSEC seeking extension of six months to hold elections to the local bodies in the nine-newly carved out districts of the state. It had then noted the order of the top court passed on December 6, 2019 and had said that instead of four months given to hold the elections, the poll panel has taken 18 months. It had also noted that the tenure of the local bodies expired in 2018-19 and since then there were no new elected representatives. The bench had said that if the order of the court is not complied with, then the poll body will be liable for contempt action. On December 11, 2019, the top court had directed the Tamil Nadu government and the state poll panel to conduct upcoming local bodies" election by relying on 2011 census instead of the 1991 census as alleged by opposition party DMK. The court"s earlier order had come on the plea of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which had then sought quashing of the notification, issued by the state poll panel on December 7, 2019, for local body election alleging that it did not provide quota for women and SC and ST candidates as per the 2011 census and was using 1991 census for this purpose. The top court, on December 6, 2019, had put on hold the elections for the local bodies in nine new districts, carved out of four existing ones, in the state for complying with legal formalities such as delimitation and reservation in four months. The top court had modified its earlier order and asked the delimitation commission to conclude the delimitation exercise within three months instead of four months in nine districts. It had said however that TNSEC could proceed with the elections to all panchayats at village, intermediate and district levels in the remaining 31 revenue districts of the southern state. PTI SJK SA