The Calcutta High Court Wednesday stated that the State Election Commission should function in such a way that people of West Bengal are assured that the July 8 panchayat elections in the state will be held in a “free and fair manner”. The court also directed the state government to cooperate with the poll panel. The court said as the state decided to hold the panchayat elections in one phase on July 8, there can be no compromise on preparedness, logistics and support from the state machinery. A division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam said that the SEC “should function in such a manner that the public of the state of West Bengal get confidence with the commission and are rest assured that there will be free and fair elections and the purity of the election process will be preserved.” Hearing a contempt petition which claimed that the court's earlier orders on deployment of central forces and ensuring free and fair polls were not adhered to in letter and spirit, the bench said that nothing should be done by the commission to shake the confidence reposed in it by the court. The court said that a report on compliance for installing CCTV cameras at polling stations for the July 8 polls in over 61,000 polling stations across the state, is not satisfactory as it only states that orders have been placed for requisitioning those, but it is silent about follow up on those. The court asked the SEC and the West Bengal government to file reports on the matter and other issues like allegations of rostering contractual staff for election duty and directed that the matter be taken up for hearing again on July 3. Noting that a compliance report filed by the SEC on Wednesday as per earlier direction of the court was verbose, the court said that it had in its earlier orders of June 13, June 15 and June 21 had delineated the parameters which are to be adhered to. It said that, therefore, all that is required of the commission is to answer that in a precise format. The additional solicitor general, appearing for the Centre, submitted that no reply was received from the commission to a June 24 letter on whether the central forces will be on static duty or they will be deployed in booths, except for district-wise placement for 315 companies. He stated that the SEC has not intimated the nodal officer on logistic support like accommodation and transport facilities for the central forces
