Keywords – Election, High Court, Nomination, Voter
There are new developments in the Calcutta high court regarding the west Bengal panchayat elections which are to be held on 8th of July, a regular audience might know that previously we reported on a petition filed by Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP in Calcutta high court as a result of the petition the Calcutta high court issued directions to the west Bengal state election commissions to requisition and deploy central paramilitary forces to keep the peace and ensure free and fair elections in the state. There was another contempt petition for contempt of this order where further instructions were given to the sec.
Now a public interest litigation has been filed in the High Court by a person claiming to be an independent voter, the allegations are that the unopposed elections of the ruling party candidates from the voters block and stopping of the nomination of the rival prospective candidates take away their right to choose. A similar petition filed by the afforded prospective candidates complaining of being stopped from filing nominations from gaining one block is pending before the single judge bench of justice Amrita Sinha in the Calcutta high court; this petition was being heard by a two judge bench of chief justice T.S Shivagnanam and justice Ajay Kumar Gupta. The bench took exception to the fact that this public interest litigation may be politically motivated the bench noted that strong similarities between the recitals and prayers of both petitions by two different private parties that is the petition by the independent voter and the petition by the prospective candidates.
Justice T.S Shivagnanam overly remarked “we find the averments in both the petitions to be identical at least 7 to 9 paragraphs and 8 grounds are similar identical pleadings the font is also identical you please come forward because there are serious allegation made that the petitioner has been set up by one candidate who is already before the single bench. Justice Gupta and I may dictate a judgement in a different languages ,even you and your junior will use different types of expressions when dictating let us admit don’t run away from the problem or we will summon the petitioner it is cut-paste can we not draw and inference saying that somebody has set up this petitioner or he is a embouchure of somebody been estimated as public interest litigant are we not justified in saying that on this ground, the petition needs to be rejected.”
It was argued by the council for the candidates that they had not been made a party to the said rate petition and hence, their rights could not be prejudiced till they were given chance to be heard in the matter after being made parties to it on the other hand it was argued by the council or for the state election commission as well as the council for the state that the petition in its present format was not maintainable and even so the grounds laid out in both petitions were identical giving rise to a suspicion of petitions being filed malified or bad faith and proving that the petition was not public spirited but in fact politically motivated. This matter will be taken up by the Calcutta high court on Monday the 3rd of July.
This however was not the only development in litigation regarding the panchayat elections in the Calcutta high court today anther plea was also mentioned before the same two judges bench this petition seeks declaration of state emergency and stoppage of elections the police said “the election process should be stopped, and the directions should be issued on the central government, Home ministry to declare emergency after getting a report from the governor if they find it fit that the emergency should be declared in these cases.
Then the postponement of panchayat election is required another PIL challenging the appointment of the state election commissioner was also mentioned before the bench today the petition says that the appointment f the commissioner of the state election commission has legislative backing since the notification concerning the state amendment act that appointed the state election commission was not published in the official gazette so, the petition seeks a declaration that all actions taken by the commissioner during this tenure by the commissioner during this tenure are void from the beginning another PIL in the high court alleges that health insurance schemes are being misemployed to scam the voters.
Written by – Drishti Pandey College – University of Allahabad Semester -4th an intern under legal vidhiya
0 Comments