KOLKATA: In a major decision, the Supreme Court upholds the Calcutta High Court’s directive for central forces deployment in West Bengal for local body elections.
A vacation bench comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Manoj Misra dismissed the petitions filed by the West Bengal government and West Bengal State Election Commission.
“We find that the order of the HC does not call for any interference. The petition stands dismissed,” the SC stated in its decision.
Election can’t be an excuse for violence, says Supreme Court while dismissing West Bengal EC’s SLP, challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order asking for deployment of central forces.
This is a resounding defeat for Mamata Banerjee, who had made Panchayat Poll a prestige issue…
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 20, 2023
Reacting to the SC decision, state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sukanta Majumdar said that the decision is a slap on Chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“We welcome the verdict by the Supreme Court. This is a slap on Mamata Banerjee by both the high court and Supreme Court. I also want to congratulate her on West Bengal Foundation Day,” Majumdar, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, said.
There is always wide spread pre poll & post poll violence in West Bengal. The Kolkatta HC had directed the WB State Election Commission to deploy CAPF in all districts for the Panchayat polls scheduled for 8 July23. WB Govt & State Election Commision appealed against it in SC. 2. https://t.co/RxQdWFdqUb
— SK Chakraborty (@sanjoychakra) June 20, 2023
Taking a conciliatory tone, TMC RS MP, Dr Shantanu Sen, said, “A good student, who studies throughout the year, never gets bothered by the invigilator. Likewise, Trinamool, who has always worked for the people, is not bothered about the deployment of the central forces. This time also, people’s support will be there.”
Dismissing the petitions filed by the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government and state election commission, the Court also observed that elections cannot be accompanied by violence.
Huge setback for Ms @MamataOfficial who had made Panchayat Poll a prestige issue –
“Election can’t be an excuse for violence”, says SC while dismissing West Bengal EC’s SLP, challenging Calcutta HC’s order asking for deployment of central forces.
Hope she learns her lessons!
— Amit Rakshit 🇮🇳 (@amitrakshitbjp) June 20, 2023
Amid reports of alleged TMC supporters stopping opposition candidates from filing nominations, the SC also questioned about holding free and fair elections.
SC also remarked that, considering all the scenarios, the HC may have thought that instead of requisitioning forces from other states, it was better to deploy central forces.
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The Calcutta high court’s order on deploying the central force for the panchayat poll was challenged by the West Bengal state election commission in the Supreme Court.
Incidentally, the cost of the deployment of the central force will be borne by the central government and no burden will be added to the state government.
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A division bench of the Calcutta high court, comprising Chief Justice TS Sivagnaman and Justice Uday Kumar, passed the order of deploying central forces in all districts after the state election commission asked for a couple of days time to identify sensitive areas.
Calcutta HC’s decision came during its hearing on two separate petitions filed by the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, and Congress state chief and MP, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
ALSO READ: Mamata says Bengal panchayat violence orchestrated by opposition
The state has a total of 3,317 gram panchayats. There are 928 seats across 22 zilla parishads; 9,730 panchayat samiti seats and 63,229 gram panchayat seats. Polling for nearly 75,000 seats in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system will be held on July 8.
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