Justice Amrita Sinha of Calcutta High Court on Tuesday pulled up the State Election Commission (SEC) for its "casual attitude" while dealing with a complaint lodged by the CPM accusing a Trinamul candidate of filing his nomination when he was in Saudi Arabia.

"It seems that the State Election Commission has taken a casual attitude while conducting its investigation into the allegation lodged by the petitioner claiming that a Trinamul Congress candidate had filed his nomination at the time when he was in Saudi Arabia," Justice Sinha remarked.

The judge said the court in future would consider whether the issue needs to be probed by any competent agency, including Interpol. She also said that the officer who accepted the nomination papers should be prosecuted.

Moving the court last Friday, senior advocate and CPM Rajya Sabha member Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya alleged that a Trinamul candidate filed his nomination from Minakhan on June 14. "But the truth is that the person... went to Saudi Arabia on June 4 for Haj," Bhattacharyya had told the court.

Following the petition, Justice Sinha in an order sought a report from the SEC.

In response, the SEC filed a report in court on Tuesday saying it had conducted a probe based on the complaint and taken proper action. "The candidature has already been cancelled," the counsel appearing for SEC said.

But Justice Sinha was still dissatisfied. "It is clear that something wrong had been done by persons responsible for receiving the nomination." However, she added that as only a few days were left for the elections, "the court should not disturb the process".

The lawyer for the Centre spoke of a larger conspiracy and demanded the person who filed the fake nomination papers be traced.

The judge fixed the matter for hearing on July 19.