West Bengal The State Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that the Calcutta High Court has exceeded its judicial powers by ordering the deployment of central forces for the panchayat elections. The Commission has filed a petition in the Supreme Court saying that the High Court did not even give them a chance to present their views. Being an independent constitutional body, it has the authority to conduct panchayat elections in West Bengal and take decisions related to it. It was held that the arrangements made by the State Administration for free and fair elections were inadequate. The Commission has claimed that even the deployment of central forces is not a guarantee of creating a sense of free and fair elections among the general public. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear this petition on Tuesday. Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora mentioned the matter on Monday before a vacation bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice MM Sundaresh and demanded an urgent hearing. Advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the State Election Commission, said that the appeal against the order was filed last Friday, but the hearing did not take place. On June 15, the High Court had directed the commission to make a demand and deploy within 48 hours for the deployment of central forces across West Bengal for the panchayat elections. The court had said that since the order passed by it on June 13 for the deployment of central forces in sensitive areas for the election process, no commendable steps have been taken so far. Only after this, the High Court had ordered the deployment of central security forces in the entire state.
The case will be heard tomorrow in the High Court
The opposition has filed a petition in the High Court accusing the State Election Commission of contempt. On Thursday, the High Court had directed the commission to deploy central forces within 48 hours, the deadline of which expired on Saturday. But till now the central security forces have not been deployed. The opposition alleges that the High Court’s instructions were not implemented even after the deadline had passed. State Leader of Opposition Shubhendu Adhikari and Congress leader AH Khan Chowdhary filed the case in the Calcutta High Court on Monday. Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam allowed the petition. Also said that the Commission has not implemented the order of the High Court, they also came to know through the newspaper. The hearing of the contempt case will be held on Wednesday.
Threatening to withdraw nomination, opposition parties filed PIL in High Court
Kolkata. The opposition parties of the state have filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court saying that their candidates are being threatened to withdraw their nominations for the panchayat elections. A public interest litigation has been filed regarding this in the Calcutta High Court on Monday. It has been said in the PIL that the opposition candidates have not been able to file nominations at many places including Minakhan, Hadova, Habra, Basirhat, Barasat in North 24 Parganas district. In many places the candidates of the opposition party have hardly filed nominations, but now they too are being threatened to withdraw their nominations. The petitioners have demanded the High Court to extend the deadline for filing nominations as well as provide security to the candidates who have filed nomination papers. High Court lawyer S Ahmed attracted the attention of the court by filing a PIL, after which a division bench headed by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam has given permission to file the petition.
