The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the special leave petitions (SLPs) filed by the State Election Commission (SEC) and the Mamata Banerjee government challenging Calcutta High Court’s orders to deploy central forces for the July 8 panchayat polls, saying “elections cannot be a license for violence”.
A vacation bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Manoj Misra dismissed the appeals after hearing the matter for nearly 90 minutes.
“…Having regard to the volume of booths which are being set up for the elections, we find that the order of the high court does not call for any interference. The SLPs stand dismissed,” said the bench.
According to the Bengal government, there are around 63,229 gram panchayat seats, 9,730 panchayat samity constituencies, and 928 zilla parishad constituencies. Further, there are 61,636 polling booths and 44,382 polling premises in Bengal.
The SEC and the government filed the appeals separately.
On public interest litigations filed by Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, the high court had on June 13 ordered the deployment of central forces in “sensitive districts”. Dismissing an appeal from the government, the high court on June 15 directed that the central forces be deployed across Bengal for the rural polls.
“Holding an election cannot be a license for violence. There has been a history of violence in the State, “ Justice Nagarathna heading the Supreme Court bench told senior advocates Sidharth Agarwal and Meenakshi Arora appearing for the government and the SEC, respectively.
However, the bench added: “We appreciate that you are a state having a democratic setup right upto the grassroot level where elections take place. But at the same time elections cannot be held in an atmosphere of violence, candidates are not being allowed to file nominations… where people are finished…”
The court also told Arora that the commission should not be worried about the deployment of the central forces as it was done only to ensure free and fair elections.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for Adhikari, objected to the SLPs, saying no interferencewas called for as the central forces would anyway act under the overall control of state police.
The bench reminded the Bengal government that it had requested police personnel from other states for maintaining law and order and that there should not be any objection to the deployment of the paramilitary forces.
“Even according to you (State) the police force is inadequate to meet the situation. That is why you have requisitioned forces from half a dozen states. The high court had only said take central force instead of requisitioning forces from half a dozen states. The expenses would be borne by the Central Government,” the Supreme Court said.
Pointing out that the central forces would only aid and assist the state police, Salve said unfortunately, the Bengal government was viewing the paramilitary as “an invading army”.
Arora told the court that the elections had been notified by the SEC on June 8 and the following day, the PIL was filed for the central forces’ deployment.
“How are you (SEC) aggrieved by the high court order? … Where the forces come from is not your concern. How is it maintainable?... Having regard to past history in the state the petition was entertained by the high court and order was passed. But it is to your (SEC) aid. You (SEC) cannot have been aggrieved,” the bench observed while dismissing the two SLPs.
