The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Tuesday a plea jointly moved by the ruling Trinamool Congress and the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court directing the deployment of central forces across the state in the wake of violence ahead of the panchayat elections.
The plea was mentioned on Monday before a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and M M Sundresh by senior advocate Meenakshi Arora.
The Calcutta High Court had on June 15 directed the poll panel to send a requisition to the Centre for the deployment of forces within 48 hours.
The division bench, presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam, had directed the poll body to follow the requisition orders for all the districts that witnessed clashes over filing of nominations for the July 8 panchayat elections.
It was noted during the hearing that no appreciable steps were taken since the order was passed on June 13.
The order came after sporadic violence, which left atleast seven dead, was reported in several districts over filing of nominations from June 9 to June 15. The panchayat polls are slated be held on July 8.
The districts earmarked as sensitive by the poll body are Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Murshidabad, East Midnapore and Jalpaiguri.
The HC had passed the order after BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari and Congress’s Adhir Chowdhury moved court.
On Friday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a public rally questioned the justification of the deployment of armed forces in the state.
Following the Calcutta HC order, the WBSEC moved the apex court on Saturday challenging it.
The decision to approach the SC was taken on late Friday evening after state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha had a meeting with the State Chief Secretary BP Gopalika and the Additional Director General (law & order) Jawed Shamim at the office of the WBSEC.
Also, the decision to move the top court is a U-turn from the poll body’s earlier stand of abiding by the order of the Calcutta High Court. In fact, on late Thursday evening, Sinha said that he would abide by the Calcutta High Court order.