Bengal Panchayat Polls: Citing present and past violence, HC orders deployment of central forces

“….if the (State Election) Commission, for sufficient reasons, considers to extend the date of completion of any election without interfering with the date fixed for holding elections under Section 42, such power of extension of various stages of election other than interfering with the date of election can be exercised by the Commission under the said provision,” the Bench said.
Earlier, during the hearing of the case, the Bench had observed that five days provided for filing nomination papers was “prima facie inadequate”, while the SEC said that it could extend the nomination deadline by one day to June 16.

On the deployment of Central forces, the High Court in its order said: “It is not in dispute that a preliminary assessment has already been made by the State Election Commission and several districts having been earmarked as “sensitive”. It has been widely reported in the press that there have been several instances where the prospective candidates complained about non-availability of nomination papers which resulted in violence being precipitated…”

“Considering the fact that the total number of seats for which the election has to be conducted is more than 75,000; and going by the past incidents wherein on more than 12 occasions, the court had to intervene for directing the deployment of central forces or transferring the cases to the National Investigating Agency, we are of the view that the State Election Commission should and shall requisition the deployment of central forces to work in tandem with the police force of the State of West Bengal to ensure free and fair elections,” the High Court said.

Citing the petitioners’ contention that there is “inadequate police force” to cover all the polling stations when the elections are being held, the High Court said: “Thereafter, the State Election Commission shall review the assessment plan submitted by the state and wherever there is inadequacy of state police force, in all such areas the SEC shall requisition the deployment of paramilitary forces.”

The court also added that the poll panel “shall forthwith send requisition of deployment of Central forces for all areas/districts…. declared sensitive”.

On Monday, SEC counsel had told the court that it is for the state poll panel to take a call on whether the state police force was adequate or not, while assuring that law and order will be properly maintained during the election process.

The High Court, meanwhile, also ordered installation of CCTV cameras at all polling booths and counting centres. “In… those polling stations where it is technically not feasible to install CCTV cameras, the entire process — commencing from the filing of the nomination papers till the declaration of the result – has to be videographed,” the High Court said,

“In case the State Election Commission is to requisition the CCTV facility installed by the police department, then the police department should share the link with the Election Commissioner so that the video footage which has been recorded and live streamed can be viewed by the State Election Commission and such recording be saved in the data files for future reference,” the court ordered.

The court also directed the SEC to videograph the entire voting process in booths lacking CCTV facilities and preserve the footage.

The Commission has already ordered videography for the filing of nominations, scrutiny of nominations, withdrawal of candidates and the counting process.

A day after Rajiva Sinha, the newly appointed State Election Commissioner, announced that elections to the three-tier panchayat bodies will be held in a single phase on July 8, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari filed PILs in the High Court, seeking an extension of the nomination period and deployment of central paramilitary forces during the election.