Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the state government to take all measures so that persons injured on panchayat poll day could get treated at state-run hospitals or any competent private health facilities.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam also directed the state to make arrangements for videography of the postmortem of persons killed in violence on poll day. The bench also sought a report of the rural poll violence from the BSF IG, appointed by the central government to check and control the distribution of the central forces.

Monday's order followed a petition by state Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who pleaded his case as lawyers did not attend court to mourn the demise of former judge Justice Tarun Chatterjee.

Pleading his case, Chowdhury demanded a probe into the "massive violence" that took place across Bengal. He also told the court that the state had failed to provide treatment to injured persons or announce compensation for family members of those killed on poll day.

Responding to Chowdhury's prayer for a probe, the bench held that it was not the proper forum to address the demand.

The Chief Justice asked Chowdhury to make his prayer during the hearing of a contempt case related to rural polls that would come up for hearing on Tuesday.

Around 2.30pm, when Chowdhury's petition came up for hearing, the advocate general for the state and Jishnu Saha, on behalf of the State Election Commission (SEC), represented the case.

Several other lawyers had also assembled during the hearing with various complaints of violence on poll day. But as these complaints were made orally and no proper petitions were filed on their behalf, the Chief Justice advised them to take part in Tuesday's proceedings when the matters relating to holding of repolling would be heard.

The SEC counsel informed the court that after verifying the video footage of polling centres, his client felt that repolling should be held in 696 booths.

"Peaceful repolling in these booths has been taking place today," the SEC's lawyer said.

The Congress president and some lawyers present in the court strongly opposed the SEC counsel's claim and demanded repolling in "at least 50,000 booths".

Chowdhury claimed that violence and killings could also take place during the counting of votes on Tuesday and later. Chowdhury sought a specific directive from the SEC to prevent this possibility.

The SEC counsel informed the court that one company of the central forces, along with an adequate number of state police personnel, would be present in each of 393 counting centres on Tuesday.

The commission's counsel also said that 144 CrPC should be declared outside the counting centres as there were chances of violence after the publication of results.

The Chief Justice asked the advocate-general to take up the issue with the state government.

Chowdhury and others claimed hundreds of persons were injured on poll dates. The Chief Justice expressed his anguish as Chowdhury failed to bring specific allegations. "Your petition should be considered a fake petition. From media reports, it can be assumed that many people were injured during the day. So urgent measures should be taken for their proper treatment," the Chief Justice said.

Suvendu decision

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said on Monday that he would move Calcutta High Court on Tuesday demanding the cancellation of polls on certain booths. "We have collected more than 1,000 video clips. We will demand that election to these booths are cancelled," Adhikari said.

"Whichever booths they rigged, we will demand re-polls in each of them. CCTV and videography footage will have to be checked by the central forensic laboratory. Thumb impressions of voters will have to be tested by forensic experts," he said, adding he will raise these demands in court.