New Delhi, Mar 12 (IANS); The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the DMK's plea seeking by-elections to three vacant seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, along with the 18 others.

On Sunday, the Election Commission, while announcing the schedule for the coming Lok Sabha polls, had also declared by-elections to 18 vacant assembly seats, but did not mention the Ottapidaram, Tirupparankundrrama and Aravakurichi constituencies.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed to hear the matter on March 16 as senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned the plea for an urgent hearing.

The 18 seats fell vacant after the sitting legislators, owing allegiance to the AIADMK faction led by sidelined party leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, were disqualified after they withdrew support to Chief Minister K. Palaniswami.

The by-elections to the three seats have not been announced by the EC because of a pending election petition before the Madras High Court.