Bengal pols

Anticipating the SEC’s move, the state’s main opposition CPI(M) and BJP filed caveat before the top court saying no ex-parte orders should be passed.

Caveat is a legal notice to a court or public officer that certain actions may not be taken without informing the person who gave the notice. The CPI(M) has claimed that many of its candidates were prevented from filing nominations by the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress.

Passing the order, the HC had observed that the poll process itself involved participation and to shut out an intending bona fide candidate from participating in it, thwarted the very basic democratic principles on which it stood. The court had said that though the filing of nominations through e-mail was not a recognised procedure under the West Bengal Panchayat Act of 2003, but in a situation where allegations of obstructing candidates from filing nominations had surfaced and had also been acknowledged by the SEC, it should have allowed the filing of nominations through e-mail.

The SEC, being a constitutional body, had to act “fairly, transparently and independently” to advance the democratic principles by allowing the intending candidates to contest, the high court said.

The CPI(M) had submitted a list of over 800 prospective candidates, claiming they were prevented from filing nominations at the designated offices and had hence sent their documents to the SEC through e-mail.