The Madras High Court has ordered that the variation in voter population between different wards in municipal corporations should not exceed 10% when the delimitation exercise is carried out in the future. The court pointed out that the Tamil Nadu Local Bodies Delimitation Regulations of 2017 permit a variation of 25% only in village panchayats and restricts it to 10% in all other local bodies.
Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu passed the order while disposing of a writ petition that complained that a few wards in the Madurai Corporation had 28,000 voters while others had only 11,000. The petitioner’s counsel M. Purushothaman contended that the delimitation exercise had not been carried out as per the 2017 Regulations.
Since the process for the urban local body polls this year had already begun, he insisted that the 2017 Regulations should be followed strictly at least in the future. Accepting his submission, the judges wrote: “The variation of only 10% is permissible for municipal corporations, and otherwise, it is 25% for village panchayats. The variation in the present case is more than 10% as pointed out by the petitioner.”
They directed the State government as well as the Tamil Nadu Delimitation Commission for Local Bodies to ensure that Regulation 6 of the 2017 Regulations were followed strictly in the future, and that they should not permit variation beyond 10% in municipal corporations.
