Panchayat polls in West Bengal will take placeon May 14, as per schedule, after the Calcutta High Court on Thursday reposed faith in the security arrangements of the State Election Commission.
In a separate verdict, the Supreme Court stayed a previous decision of a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court that directed the SEC to accept nominations filed via e-mail.
Acting on a petition by West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee said it would not intervene in the election process if the SEC was satisfied with the security arrangements made by the State government.
According to Justice Bhattacharya, the “High Court has no independent mechanism for assessing the law and order problem of the State” or even the security arrangements made.
“Since the State Election Commissioner has expressed his satisfaction about the security arrangements made by the State government, this court, having no independent machinery to assess the adequacy of such security arrangements, declines to assess the adequacy of such security arrangements by reposing faith and trust in the high constitutional functionary of the State,” the order said, adding that the Court “sincerely believe(s) that the decision which was taken by the State government, and approved by the SEC, is free, fair and unbiased.
Warns State govt
The High Court also maintained that the State government shall be held liable if the security arrangements were found to be “inadequate and insufficient”.
In case of death or destruction of property higher than the 2013 panchayat polls — when Central forces were deployed and elections held in five phases — compensation has to be paid.
The State government officials who provided the report and the State Election Commissioner will also be “personally liable” to provide compensation if the reports “were not fair” and were submitted to “mislead the court”.
“Personally liable” would mean recovery of compensation out of the salary and/or retrial benefits and from personal property by way of sale.