High Court on Wednesday directed the State Election Commission to hold polls to 111 civic bodies in Bengal at the earliest and in as few phases as possible and inform the court about the schedule on December 23.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava also clarified that it was not imposing any stay on Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls scheduled to be held on December 19.

The BJP — which became a party to a PIL filed by an individual seeking an order from the high court to the SEC to hold all pending civic elections at the same time — had pleaded for a stay on the CMC polls. The CPM had also become a party to the case.

The bench which also comprised Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed the state poll panel to announce the dates of elections to the 111 municipal bodies after consulting with the state government.

“The SEC is directed to inform this court on December 23 about the schedule fixed for the elections,” the bench ordered. The court said the case would be heard again on December 23.

When the case was being heard earlier, the SEC had said in a submission to the court that it planned to hold polls to the 111 civic bodies in six to eight phases and wanted to complete the entire process by May 2022. This was strongly opposed by the BJP.

Reacting to the verdict, Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari said a political party couldn’t win the polls with the help of the high court. “Also, the high court mustn’t help a political party because it is a constitutional body. The high court must check if fake voters from Bangladesh are voting in Calcutta, whether genuine voters of Calcutta are able to cast their votes, if Trinamul goon is monitoring the EVM, and whether Opposition parties have been able to post agents at booths. This is what needs to be checked. When democracy is under attack the judiciary comes forward…high court is doing its job and we all are law abiding people.”

CPM’s Calcutta district committee’s secretary Kallol Majumder welcomed the court’s order. “We have been saying the same thing. We didn’t oppose holding the polls. What we said was that the government must announce the polls together even if they are held on different days. Plus, the counting must be done on a single day. The court has given directions on similar lines,” Majumder said.

Trinamul Congress spokesperson and transport minister Firhad Hakim said his party was happy with the court’s decision.

“These people (BJP) had been trying to stop polls because they don’t want to take the people’s mandate. The BJP is scared. However, the court didn’t walk that path and that is correct. Trinamul Congress is guided by the people’s mandate,” Hakim said.

Another petition moved by the BJP seeking an order for deployment of central forces during the civic polls was supposed to be heard by a bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha on Wednesday. However, the hearing did not take place. Justice Mantha told the BJP counsel that he would hear the case on Thursday.