The Madras High Court has issued notices to the Puducherry government and the State Election Commission on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking local body elections in the Union Territory. Elected communes and municipalities existed under French rule before Puducherry's liberation in 1954. Local body polls were held until 1968 and then stopped for about 38 years, resuming only in 2006 after the issue was raised in Parliament. The tenure of those bodies ended in 2011, and no elections have been held since. Under Articles 243-K and 243-ZA, a Common Election Commission conducts such polls for some other UTs, with Ladakh added in September 2023.