Supreme Court: In an appeal filed by the State Government and the State Election Commission (‘SEC’) against two orders of the Calcutta High Court, wherein the Court directed deployment of central forces for the 2023 panchayat elections in West Bengal, the division bench of BV Nagarathna and Manoj Misra,JJ. has upheld the impugned order and observed that the High Court’s order was meant to ensure free and fair elections in the State. Thus, the Court refused to interfere with the said order.
The BJP Politicians have filed a public interest litigation before the Calcutta High Court against the SEC’s act of notifying the schedule of the Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad Panchayat elections. Under this, the SEC had desired deployment of central forces for sensitive seats and extension of deadline for filing nominations.
The Calcutta High Court granted deployment of central forces but denied extension of deadline for filing nominations.
The State Government submitted that the deployment ordered by the High Court was for every district, not particularly for sensitive seats, as if the entire force of West Bengal is inadequate and incompetent. To this, the Court after noting that the State had requisitioned forces from five different states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Punjab, said that this showed that even according to the State, the police force as of now is inadequate to meet the situation. Therefore, it had requisitioned police force from half a dozen states. Further, it stated that the High Court instead of requisitioning from half a dozen states, ordered the central police force to come. Thus, ultimately directing the cost to be borne by the Centre and not the State.
The Court observed that holding elections cannot be a license for violence. Further, the Court remarked that West Bengal has a democratic setup right up to the lower levels and grass root level, where elections are taking place. But at the same time, elections cannot be accompanied by violence. If persons are not able to file their nominations or if those who have filed their nominations are finished off, or there are group clashes, then where is the free and fair election.
Source: Press
