West Bengal: Govt asked to file affidavit on municipal corporation polls

Calcutta High Court has directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit on the forthcoming municipal corporation elections in the state. The court issued the direction while hearing a petition on the municipal corporation elections in the state. The next hearing on this matter will be on November 23

KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit on the forthcoming municipal corporation elections in the state.

The court issued the direction while hearing a petition on the municipal corporation elections in the state. The next hearing on this matter will be on November 23. The court has directed the state government and the state election commission to file their respective affidavits in the interim period.

The bench of the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Prakash Srivastab also directed that no notification of municipal corporation or municipal polls can be issued while the hearing will continue. The development poses grave uncertainty for the elections for Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC), which the state government proposed to conduct on December 18.

The petition was filed as soon as the state government initiated the process of conducting the polls for KMC and HMC before Christmas. The petitioner demanded that the pending polls for all the municipalities and municipal corporations should be conducted on the same day.

Meanwhile, the court barred the state election commission from issuing any poll-related notification while the hearing in the matter will be on. The state election commission has informed the court that they will have no problem if the state government decides to conduct elections for all municipalities and municipal corporations on the same day.

As per the court directive, the state government should mention their plans relating to municipal polls in its affidavit.