The division bench of Calcutta High Court headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam on Thursday evening modified its Tuesday order and asked the state election commission to take necessary action to deploy central paramilitary forces across Bengal for violence-free panchayat polls.
“In the result, this writ petition is disposed of by directing the State Election Commission to requisition the deployment of Central Forces for all Districts in the State of West Bengal and this direction shall be complied with by the State Election Commission within 48 hours from the date of the receipt of the server copy of this order,” reads the order.
The bench in its order stated that “no appreciable” steps were taken since Tuesday's ruling in which deployment of central forces was ordered in sensitive areas, and waiting any longer for the poll panel’s action could cause more damage.
The bench also asked the poll panel to make it mandatory for all officials engaged in poll duty to display their identity cards prominently and produce the ID readily whenever any observer or any authority asks them to prove their identity.
On Thursday night, state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha told The Telegraph: “We will comply with the court order.”
The bench expressed concern over the violence in the state during the nomination filing process and criticised the poll panel for failing to keep the assurances it had given to the court during the hearing of the case.
The modified order followed a plea by the state government counsel Kalyan Banerjee seeking a review of the earlier directive that asked the poll panel to deploy central forces in “sensitive districts”.
Banerjee strongly opposed the deployment of central forces and claimed the state was ready to provide forces according to the poll panel's needs.
“The state government has approached Bihar, Odisha, Punjab, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu for police forces. Already, the chief secretary of Tamil Nadu has agreed to send forces,” Banerjee claimed.
The counsels appearing for the BJP, the CPM and the Congress advocated for the deployment of central force.
Banerjee cited the killings of some innocent villagers at Sitalkuchi in firing by central forces during the 2021 Assembly polls.
Moving the petition earlier in the day, Banerjee said that in its verdict the bench said that since the poll panel admitted some areas were identified as sensitive zones, the court was asking it to take help from central forces. He claimed that according to the state, no area was identified as sensitive zone and hence the court should revise its order.
Hearing Banerjee, the Chief Justice said: “If such a prayer is made, the bench would have to ask the poll panel to deploy central forces throughout the state.”
BJP counsel Soumya Majumdar claimed the situation was so grave that central forces were needed for the entire state.
The Chief Justice allowed both Banerjee and Majumdar to file their cases.
But later in the day, the BJP, CPM and Congress moved the division bench and sought immediate hearing of their allegations.
Jointly moving court, CPM counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and Congress counsel Kaustav Bagchi informed the court about the Chopra incident and demanded immediate deployment of central forces in the state.
A senior bureaucrat said the poll panel was unwilling to move court against the court’s Tuesday order asit was felt that it was in favour of the commission and state as it left identification ofsensitive areas to the commission.
“So, the commission could have decided how many companies of central forces were required and where they should be deployed. Now, the situation has gone out of control and central forces have to be deployed across thestate. It has to be seen who takes responsibility for the situation now,” said a bureaucrat.
