Panchayat elections: Calcutta High Court recommends Central forces for “sensitive” districts
On Tuesday, the Calcutta High Court Tuesday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to deploy Central paramilitary forces for the upcoming panchayat elections. The bench of Chief Justice Sivagnaman and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya, however, left it to the discretion of whether to extend the last date for filing nominations.
The decisions came in response to writ petitions filed by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, which raised several points of contention such as lack of reasonable notice period for filing nominations, deployment of central reserve forces to maintain law and order, employment of contractual workers as polling officers, among others.
Noting that there have been more than 12 instances of violence during elections in the past, the order said that the “SEC shall requisition central forces for all districts that have been declared as sensitive”.
It may be noted that all the booths in the districts of Jalpaiguri, Birbhum, Purba Medinipur, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas have been designated as sensitive.
