E-Paper
Bengal battle over counting reaches Supreme Court, TMC seeks vigil by state govt employees
According to the EC order issued through the West Bengal CEO, at least one person at every counting table should be a Central Government or PSU official.
The Supreme Court will hold a special sitting on Saturday to hear a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) challenging an Election Commission of India (ECI) directive mandating at least one central government officer to be the counting supervisor at each counting table ahead of the counting on May 4.
In an urgent appeal on Friday after their plea was not entertained by the Calcutta high court on Thursday, the TMC approached the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant with an urgent request to constitute a bench on Saturday as the counting of votes in West Bengal is scheduled on Monday.
A bench of justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi will take up the plea filed by advocate Sanchit Garga against the ECI, the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and the state’s additional CEO, who issued the April 13 order challenged by the TMC. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and other senior advocates are expected to argue the petition before the top court.
TMC's ‘bias’ fear
Apprehending bias and a possible distortion of a level playing field, the TMC has questioned such a requirement without disclosing any reason or criteria. The party said that the order specifies "at least one among the counting supervisor and counting assistant at each counting table shall be a Central Government/Central PSU employee".
According to the petition, such a directive will “significantly” alter the composition of personnel at the counting tables by disproportionately increasing the presence of individuals under the central government's control.
“This creates a reasonable apprehension of bias, undermines the neutrality of the counting process, and disturbs the level playing field between contesting political parties… given that its principal political opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is the ruling party at the Centre and thus exercises administrative control over Central Government/public sector undertaking employees,” it said.
As per the Handbook for Counting Agents, 2023, the TMC said that each counting table already has micro-observers, who are invariably central government/central PSU employees. The present directive will introduce an additional layer of central government officers as counting supervisors or counting assistants, to which the TMC has objected.
In its order passed on April 30, the high court brushed aside the apprehension of bias as “impossible to believe” and asked the party to challenge this in an election petition after the declaration of results.
The petition questioned the high court decision, which reasoned that ECI has the prerogative to appoint counting personnel from either the central or state government and this could not be questioned by the court.
The TMC said its apprehension was borne out of legitimate concerns about institutional control and structural bias, and has urged the top court to grant relief by addressing these concerns. The party has also prayed for an interim direction to stay the ECI direction.
