Panchayat elections in West Bengal and declaration of results will be subject to its final orders, said the Calcutta High Court Photo Credit: Sushant Patronobish
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday said the panchayat elections in West Bengal and the declaration of results will be subject to its final orders in respect of cases it is hearing on polling day alleging electoral malpractices.
The court directed the State Election Commission (SEC), the state government and the central government to file affidavits dealing with all the allegations leveled in the three petitions alleging malpractices.
“When the matter is before the Court, it is needless to say that whatever has been done so far, i.e., the conduct of the election and the declaration of the results, shall be subject to the final orders that may be passed in this writ petition. ” They said.
The court directed that the SEC should inform this aspect to all the candidates who have been declared elected.
Alleging large-scale violence and electoral malpractices during the Panchayat elections on July 8, the petitioners prayed for a direction to the SEC to conduct re-polling in about 50,000 booths.
Re-polling took place in 696 booths and the counting of ballot papers began on 11 July.
A petitioner who displayed videos showing alleged large-scale malpractices on election day was directed to furnish a copy of the videos to the SEC, state and central governments’ lawyers by Wednesday.
The court directed that the matter will be heard on July 19.
Expressing displeasure over the SEC, the bench said that prima facie it is of the view that the response of the commission is not adequate and on Wednesday also none of its officers were present in the court to give necessary instructions to its counsel.
“It is not clear why the commission is not active, especially when the court was monitoring the entire process and the first judgment was delivered on June 13,” the court said.
The court had passed several orders to conduct the three-tier rural elections in West Bengal in a free and fair manner.
The court said that it is surprising to know that even after the declaration of the results, the state is not able to control the violence that erupted at many places.
“It is the responsibility of the State Government to ensure that there is no breach of peace. If the State Government is not in a position to protect its citizens, it is a very serious matter to be noted,” the court said.
The petitioner also sought a direction to the CBI to register an FIR and investigate the violence and electoral malpractices and conduct a forensic audit of the video footage of the polling booths and forensic audit of the ballot papers by an independent agency.
It was also prayed that the State Government be directed to send a report to the Central Government on the bomb blasts that took place on the election day.