E-Paper
Bengal BJP moves apex court, wants central paramilitary forces for civic polls
Counsels for the BJP had told the division bench that many BJP candidates were prevented from filing nomination forms for the forthcoming polls, resulting in uncontested victory of Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta high court order that rejected the party’s demand for deployment of Central paramilitary forces during the February 27 polls at Bengal’s 108 municipalities.
The BJP’s petition has been listed for Friday, said Lokenath Chatterjee, a lawyer representing the party.
The division bench of the Calcutta high court comprising chief justice Prakash Shrivastava and justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj ruled on Wednesday that the West Bengal election commission will decide whether it is necessary to deploy Central paramilitary forces for the February 27 civic polls. The judges called the BJP’s petition “premature”.
“After hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner at length, we are of the considered opinion that the petition is premature. Apart from that, we find that in the matter of holding election, law and order situation has to be considered by the state election commission and there are various factors for requisition of the Central paramilitary forces, such as, law and order situation and paucity of state forces etc.” the judges said in their order.
“In judicial review, the court cannot decide whether central paramilitary forces are necessary in any of the polls. These are decisions to be taken by the constitutional bodies like the state election commission, the state government, etc. Ordinarily, it is not for the Court to interfere with such matters. It is the duty of the Election Commission to ensure that free and fair election is held and for that, necessary steps to be taken by them,” the order said.
Counsels for the BJP had told the division bench that many BJP candidates were prevented from filing nomination forms for the forthcoming polls, resulting in uncontested victory of Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates. Referring to some media reports on the polls held at four municipal corporations on February 12, the petitioner alleged that there was large-scale violence and complaints in this connection were not entertained.
Counsels for the state election commission opposed the petition saying an assessment was done on the ground but no need for paramilitary forces was found. The commission also denied allegations that candidates were illegally prevented from filing nominations.
The BJP decided to challenge the high court order which the Bengal unit’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya described as “unbelievable”.
