On Monday (July 10), the Calcutta High Court refused to grant an urgent hearing to a petition, which sought action against the State Election Commission (SEC) for failing to deploy adequate police personnel at polling stations during the West Bengal Panchayat elections.
The matter came up for hearing before a 2-Judge Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Hiranmay Bhattacharya. The petitioner pointed out that the State Election Commission flouted the order of the court dated July 4, 2023, and did not deploy adequate personnel in polling stations.
The petitioner thus sought contempt of court proceedings against the SEC. While refusing to grant urgent hearing, Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam said, “No urgency. Let it come in regular course. We will hear.”
Calcutta High Court refuses to grant an urgent hearing to a Petition seeking Contempt of Court proceedings against State Election Commission for disobeying July 4 orders and not deploying adequate police personnel in polling stations.
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) July 10, 2023
Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam: No urgency.… pic.twitter.com/7VcubOLUH7
It must be mentioned that on July 4 this year, the Calcutta High Court directed the ‘Force Coordinator’ to deploy central forces at every polling station during the panchayat election in the State.
“Inspector General of BSF who has been appointed ‘Force Coordinator’ may issue appropriate directions so that the deployment of the Central forces can cover all polling stations in the State,” the court stated. It also directed deployment of police and central forces in equal measure for the entire duration of the election process till the declaration of the final results.
The Court said, “It is submitted by the learned Deputy Solicitor General that considering the forces which have been deployed, there will be nearly 65,000 active personnel and the State police forces will be about 70,000 and the deployment on a ratio of 50=50 will solve the issue.”
Violence in West Bengal during Panchayat polls
The panchayat elections held on July 8 in West Bengal were marred by widespread violence across the state. Reports emerged of booth capturing, damage to ballot boxes, and attacks on presiding officers from districts such as Murshidabad, Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, and Nadia.
Tragically, the violence resulted in the loss of over 30 lives and numerous injuries. The State Election Commission had established a total of 61,636 polling stations for conducting elections to 3,317 grampanchayats, 341 panchayat samitis, and 20 zila parishads in West Bengal.
To ensure the safe conduct of elections, 59,000 personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces and other state police forces were entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the polling stations, including the 4,834 sensitive booths where only CAPFs were deployed.
It is worth noting that under the Trinamool Congress Party’s rule, West Bengal has witnessed a deteriorating law and order situation. Mamata Banerjee’s government has been unsuccessful in containing the escalating violence, particularly the targeted killings of RSS and BJP workers, which have become distressingly commonplace.
The use of bombs as a means of political rivalry has also become alarmingly frequent, even at the block or village level. Despite the significant number of political killings, mainstream media outlets have refrained from labelling it a murder of democracy due to the apprehension of potential vindictive actions from Mamata Banerjee’s government.
