Former Puducherry Member of Parliament M. Ramadass has filed a public interest litigation petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the State Election Commission to conduct local body polls in the Union Territory within a time frame to be fixed by the court.

The court permitted Government Pleader S. Raveekumar to take notice on behalf of the Government of Puducherry and ordered notice, returnable by March 27, to the State Election Commission. Election Commission of India standing counsel Nirajan Rajagopal accepted notice for the ECI.

In his affidavit, the 77-year-old petitioner, who served as Puducherry MP during 2004-09, said even the erstwhile French rulers of the region had recognised the role of local bodies in democratic governance and therefore, created people-elected communes and municipalities as organs of grassroot democracy before the Union Territory was liberated in 1954. However, this practice continued only till 1968.

“There were no elections to these bodies after 1968, and they were kept under back burner for 38 years for reasons best known only to the members elected to the Legislative Assembly. A Government ruled by the representatives of the people wilfully and deliberately violated all the constitutional provisions,” he lamented.

The petitioner said it was only after he drew the attention of the Parliament to the issue that the local body elections were finally conducted in Puducherry in 2006, leading to the election of 1,028 representatives to 10 municipalities, 10 commune panchayats and 108 village panchayats.

After their tenure ended in 2011, the Union Territory had not witnessed local body polls till date for one reason or the other, the petitioner said, and insisted on early completion of the ongoing work of assessing the quantum of reservation to be provided to the Other Backward Classes.

Published – March 08, 2026 07:24 pm IST