Calcutta High Court suspends Bengal panchayat poll process, BJP terms it moral victory

Source – indiatoday.in

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday suspended the panchayat election process in West Bengal till April 16. Hearing a petition filed by the Bengal unit of the BJP, Justice Subrata Talukdar issued a stay on the entire process of scrutiny and withdrawal of nomination papers underway across the state.

The Court has also asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to submit a status report by April 16 on the measures taken to address grievances raised by opposition political parties in the state during the nomination filing process which ended on April 9.

Speaking to India Today, BJP’s panchayat election manager Mukul Roy hailed the court ruling as a moral victory for the party. “It is a victory of the people of Bengal who have been fighting for a cause under the leadership of the BJP. Final order is yet to come but initially our submission has been accepted by the court and we feel vindicated,” said Roy.

“Today’s verdict is a sincere attempt to address the grievance of opposition parties. The entire election process now hangs in balance till further order. The allegations raised by us have been substantiated by the court and I think it’s our moral victory,” Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury said in his response.

The ruling Trinamool Congress though has announced that it will challenge the court’s move.

TMC MP and advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who was present during the hearing of the case on Thursday said, “Court has said since the election has not started yet therefore the writ petition is maintainable. But we will challenge this before higher bench.”

“Since 1952, we have not heard of any case where the Supreme Court has passed any order stalling an election. Supreme Court has repeatedly said that once the election process starts, no court will entertain any kind of petition until completion of the election. Therefore this finding of the High Court is contrary to all judgement, all precedents of the Supreme Court of India,” Banerjee added.

Ever since the state election commission initiated the process of filing nominations for the panchayat election, opposition parties have repeatedly complained that they were not being allowed to submit nominations across the state by ruling TMC cadres resorting to violence.

On Thursday the Supreme Court had refused to intervene in the poll process and directed all opposition parties to appeal before the Calcutta High Court for redressal of their grievances.