WB Panchayat Elections| Prima Facie Charges Are Serious: Calcutta HC Orders State Election Commission To File Response
The Calcutta High Court has directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to file a response based on the charges made by the central force coordinator for West Bengal Panchayat Elections. This comes in the background of reports of massive violence during the Panchayat elections wherein the High Court had directed the SEC to deploy over 82,000 Border Security Forces (BSF).
The Division Bench of Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar said that “On a perusal of the report we find that the allegations are very serious, more particularly the allegations against the State Election Commission. In several places in the report it has been stated that the support and response of the State Election Commission and the State authorities was found wanting on number of occasions.”
The Court further added that “If the allegations set out in the report ultimately turn out to be true, then it would tantamount to a clear case of willful disobedience of the order and direction issued by this court. However, these are all prima facie observations made by this court as we would take a decision after the State Election Commission files their response to the report. There are also allegations against the State Government of non-cooperation etc.”
Senior Advocate Guru Krishna Kumar appeared for the Petitioner while Senior Advocate Jishnu Saha appeared for the West Bengal State Election Commission.
Elections for Panchayat took place in West Bengal on July 8, 2023. There were numerous reports of booth capturing, and violence during the elections. The High Court had directed the SEC to deploy central forces at all polling stations to ensure smooth functioning of the elections. It was alleged by the force coordinator, the BSF, that SEC failed to be proactive regarding curbing the situation and that there was non-cooperation from the State and the SEC.
The High Court while examining the charges said that” we are of the view that urgent meeting has to be convened by the Chief Secretary of the State of West Bengal in which the Inspector General, BSF, the Force Coordinator should be invited to participate and the other participants being the Director General of the State of West Bengal, the Additional I.G. (Law and Order) and Home Secretary and such other officers of the State Government as may be required. The Inspector General, BSF, the Force Coordinator shall also be accompanied by such number of officers as he may desire to participate in such meeting.”
Further the Court added “The district administration should be issued with clear directions as to what has to be done by them as and when directions are issued. Similarly, the State Police in all the districts shall extend their cooperation. The Nodal Officers who are appointed by the State Election Commission to oversee the election process shall be continued to be deployed in the very same district for next ten days who shall submit daily report to the committee.”
The High Court asked the SEC to file a response before July 24 and kept the matter for the next hearing on July 26.
Cause Title: Suvendu Adhikari & Anr v. Rajiva Sinha
