Calcutta HC hits out at Bengal poll panel

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court’s decision on Friday not to interfere in the panchayat poll schedule in West Bengal will not necessarily mean the end of uncertainty over the rural elections. A bench headed by HC chief justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya will hear a petition on May 8 on the alleged inadequacy of security arrangements for the polls.

A petition by the Congress has claimed t hat t he security arrangements are inadequate and sought the quashing of a notification by the State Election Commission (SEC) that the polls will be held in a single phase on May 14. A division bench comprising justices Biswanath Samaddar and Arindam Mukherjee on Friday said it will not interfere with the poll panel’s schedule.

The judge also pulled up the SEC for poor homework before the announcement of the date of polling. “The bench has observed that the action of the SEC is not above question and that it should be a wake-up call to them,” said Congress advocate Riju Ghoshal.

As things stand now, the SEC will have to convince the bench that they have put in place adequate security for the elections.

The Trinamool Congress has won uncontested 34.2% of the 58,692 seats in the three tiers — zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats.

State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “We want to plead with the courts whether it is possible to start the process afresh.”