MUTHURAJ Vs. CHIEF SECRETARY GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petition, in the nature of public interest litigation, is to challenge the Government Gazette Notification No.46-VI(2)/4(d)/2022, dtd. 17/1/2022 issued by the Chennai City Municipal Corporation.

(2.) The challenge to the notification is precisely in regard to the reservation of wards in the Chennai Municipal Corporation Elections in favour of women for the ensuing election on 19/1/2022. It is the contention of the petitioner that, as per the Constitution and the statute, the delimitation of the wards should be based on the population, but ignoring the same the notification was issued.

(3.) Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner has made reference of the earlier notification by which the reservation in favour of the women was provided dividing the wards in each zone carved out by the Corporation for administrative convenience. On a challenge to the reservation of wards on each zone basis, the notification was held to be unconstitutional and struck down. The respondents while implementing the judgment dtd. 11/1/2022 passed in W.P.No.25819 of 2021 [R.Parthiban v. The Chief Secretary and others] were required to carve out wards based on the population census of 2011 as no census took place in the year 2021 due to the pandemic Covid19.