Calcutta High Court on Thursday again flayed the State Election Commission and asked it to inform if the names of 81 ISF candidates were deleted from the final list of contestants uploaded on the commission's website.
Hearing a plea filed by the ISF, Justice Amrita Sinha of the high court said: "Is this an election? What is going on? Is anybody there in the post of chief election commissioner?"
She ordered the commissioner (Rajiva Sinha) to inform her why the names of 81 ISF candidates were deleted.
The ISF lawyer said the candidates were initially prevented by Trinamul from filing nominations. "So my clients moved court. The judge (Justice Rajasekhar Mantha) ensured police gave my clients protection to file nominations," he said.
"The ISF contestants filed nominations... and their papers were found valid. But they found their names missing from the final list of candidates on the commission's website," the lawyer said.
The SEC has not yet stated its views. Trinamul's lawyer claimed the party's candidates were elected uncontested.
On Wednesday, Justice Sinha directed the CBI to probe if names of valid candidates were deleted from the SEC website. The state government on Thursday moved an appeal before the division bench headed by Justice Arijit Banerjee, challenging Justice Sinha's order. It is likely to be heard on Friday.
Raju Jha case
A week after Justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered a CBI probe into the April murder of hotelier with alleged coal mafia links Rajesh Jha aka Raju, a division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam issued an interim stay on the order following a state plea.
