New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court regarding the deployment of central forces for the upcoming Panchayat elections in West Bengal. The matter was brought before a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and M. M. Sundresh on Tuesday by senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, who sought an urgent hearing.
The Supreme Court's vacation bench, consisting of Justices Surya Kant and M. M. Sundresh, agreed to list the Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the Calcutta High Court's order on the following day.
Meenakshi Arora, representing the State Election Commission (SEC), informed the court that an appeal against the order was filed on the previous Friday but had not been taken up. The high court had issued a directive on June 15, instructing the SEC to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the Panchayat elections within 48 hours. The court noted that no significant steps had been taken since its order on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the election process.
Arora argued that the SEC's role is to assess sensitive areas, not to send requisitions for forces, and therefore, the court's order was erroneous. The SEC has challenged two orders, one issued on June 13 and another on June 15. The June 13 order directed the SEC to send requisitions for the deployment of central forces in areas or districts it deemed sensitive, while the June 15 order mandated the deployment of forces in all districts within 48 hours. These orders were passed in response to petitions filed by Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Arora explained that the SEC had filed a review against the June 13 order, but suddenly, on June 15, another petition was filed, and the order was passed on the same day without providing the Commission an opportunity to respond. As a result, they were forced to withdraw the review. The State government has also filed an SLP in the matter, which will be heard concurrently with the SEC's appeal.
The High Court order came after Opposition leaders, including Suvendu Adhikari from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from the Congress party, had petitioned the court to ensure the deployment of central forces to maintain peace during the elections. They highlighted the widespread violence that had occurred during the municipal elections in 2022 and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections in 2021. They also requested an extension of the nomination deadline, citing inadequate time for filing nominations. The court left it to the SEC to consider the request for an extension.
The high court specifically directed the SEC to request the deployment of central forces for all districts in West Bengal that had experienced violence during the nomination filing process for the upcoming elections on July 8. The court emphasized that the lack of effective measures to identify sensitive areas and the SEC's indication that it would take a couple more days to do so were causing further harm to the situation and jeopardizing the integrity of the election process.
Additionally, the high court instructed the central government to deploy the required number of central forces, with the Union government bearing the cost of deployment, relieving the state of any financial burden. On June 13, the court had already ordered the immediate requisition and deployment of central forces in areas and districts deemed sensitive by the SEC. The SEC was further directed to review the state's assessment plan and, in cases where the state police force was inadequate, deploy paramilitary forces accordingly.
