SC refuses BJP, CPI(M) plea for panchayat repoll; relief for TMC

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to order repolling in over 20,000 seats that Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) won uncontested in the May panchayat elections.

The court, however, allowed opposition candidates who have alleged that they were intimidated and stopped from filing their nomination papers to file individual petitions after the state election commission notifies the results. The plea was filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India (Marxist).

“For this court to set aside elections to over 20,000 seats would be to prejudge the basic issue as to whether in each of those constituencies the election stands vitiated by obstruction having been caused to candidates from filing their nominations. A general assumption of this nature cannot be made. Ultimately, whether this is correct would depend upon the evidence adduced in the facts of individual cases where such a grievance has been made in an election petition,” a bench headed by chief justice of India Dipak Misra said.

“…once the election process has commenced, it is trite law that it should not be interdicted mid stage,” said the bench, also comprising justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.

Candidates can contend in their petitions that the election process was vitiated by intimidation, as was alleged by opposition parties in Bengal, including Congress, BJP and CPI(M).

“The electoral process is afforded sanctity in a democracy. That is the reason why in a con- sistent line of precedent, this Court has insisted (earlier judgments) upon the discipline of the law being followed so that any challenge to the validity of an election has to be addressed by adopting the remedy of an election petition provided under the governing statute,” said the bench, while upholding an appeal by the state election commission against the Calcutta high court order allowing nominations to be filed by electronic mode.

The SC said that since the panchayat act stipulated that the candidate should appear in person, the high court could not have passed such an order by interpreting the provisions of the Information Technology Act.

Justice Chandrachud wrote the judgment and referred to the Bengal Panchayati Raj Act that allows for filing an election petition if a dispute arises on the validity of the poll. This has to be done within 30 days after the date of declaration of the result. The court found merit in the submission made by the Bengal government and the state election commission that the discipline, mandated by the Constitution and enforced by the enabling state law on the subject, must be maintained.

“Having regard to the seriousness of the allegations and bearing in mind the fact that these proceedings were pending, we are of the view that it would be necessary to exercise the power under Article 142 of the Constitution to extend the period of 30 days for the filing of election petitions in respect of the uncontested seats,” the court said.