New Delhi, Mar 28 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission to hold elections to Ottapidaram, Tirupparankundrrama and Aravakurichi Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu within a "reasonable time".

The SC Bench, comprising Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, asked the poll panel to hold these elections to at a "reasonable time" and the EC in-principle agreed to hold the polls.

On March 10, while announcing the schedule for Lok Sabha polls the Election Commission had declared by-elections to 18 TN Assembly seats, but did not include Ottapidaram, Tirupparankundrrama and Aravakurichi constituencies.

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

The DMK had moved the top court seeking by-elections in these three seats. It suggested on Thursday that the vote to these three seats could be conducted on April 23 or April 28 during fourth and fifth phase of polling.

The 18 seats fell vacant after the legislators aligned to the AIADMK faction, led by T.T.V. Dhinakaran, were disqualified after they withdrew support to Chief Minister K. Palaniswami.