The Madras High Court has asked the Puducherry government to expedite the process for conducting local body elections in the Union Territory.

Disposing of separate petitions filed by CPI (M)-backed Independent legislator from Mahe T. Ashok Kumar and former MP and president of Puducherry Maanila Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam M. Ramadass, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan asked the territorial administration to complete the scrutiny of the report submitted by Justice K. K. Sasidharan Commission regarding OBC reservation and appoint the State Election Commissioner “expeditiously” so that the local body elections could be completed at the earliest in the Union Territory.

“Though respondents 1 (Government of Puducherry, represented by Chief Secretary) and 2 (Secretary, Local Administration) sought 24 months to complete the entire exercise and conduct the local body elections, we only record that the said respondents should put in every effort to ensure that the entire process was completed as expeditiously as possible,” the judges said.

In their petitions, Mr. Kumar and Mr. Ramadass had pointed out that local body elections in the Union Territory were not conducted for more than 14 years. The government had appointed Justice Sasidharan Commission on December 17, 2021 to finalise reservation for OBC community in the local body polls. The government has also not appointed SEC despite the post being vacant for a long time, the petitioners had said. 

The government, in its separate affidavits, submitted that it has “no intention to postpone or delay local body elections.” However, the conduct of local body elections must be preceded by a legally sustainable framework, the government said.

“The office of the SEC is now vacant and upon finalisation of the reservation framework, the same will be transmitted to the SEC for allotment and rotation of reserved wards and will take consequential steps for the conduct of elections in accordance with law, for which, the Government wants 24 months’ time,” the government said.

It also denied the charge that the Commission was used as an “ingenious device” to delay the local body elections.

“The Commission undertook a comprehensive door-to-door enumeration across the Union Territory and submitted its report on March 13, 2026. The time taken by the Commission was attributable to the absence of authenticated OBC population data, non-availability of 2021 Census data, the scale of the door-to-door enumeration, the need for ward-wise and local body-wise verification and the preparation of separate recommendations for Municipal Councils, Commune Panchayat Councils and Village Panchayats,” the affidavit read.

The delay in conducting the polls even after submission of the report, the government said, was due to the “operation of the Model Code of Conduct then, the voluminous and confidential nature of the report, the need to consolidate fifteen local body reports and 108 Village Panchayat recommendations, the need to verify constitutional and statutory compliance and resolve discrepancies before placing the matter before the Council of Ministers.” 

The government also informed the court that steps have been taken to fill the vacant post of the SEC. A detailed proposal has already been placed before the “competent authority” for filling up the post and the proposal now was under consideration. Upon approval, consequential action would be taken “expeditiously and in accordance with law.”