The court also directed the SEC to submit a detailed status report of the steps the commission had taken to ensure that all the intending individuals have filed their nominations without any trouble.
The Calcutta High Court stayed on Thursday the ongoing panchayat election process in West Bengal until further orders and kept the next date of hearing on April 16.
Justice Subrata Talukdar passed the judgment after hearing the petitions filed by BJP, CPI(M), and People's Democratic Society (PDS). The court also asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to keep in abeyance its April 10 notification of retracting the order of extending the last date of nomination by a day.
"This court has found that the election commission is now in need of help and guidance to complete the election process," Justice Talukdar observed.
The court also directed the SEC to submit a detailed status report of the steps the commission had taken to ensure that all the intending individuals have filed their nominations without any trouble.
On April 16, after the report is placed by the SEC, the court would decide on the next course step and if need be, the date of elections might also be postponed.
Justice Talukdar also rapped BJP representatives for suppressing facts in the court and for being absent from the court on April 11. "You have taken the court at your strategy... your strategy has to be court-oriented," the court observed. The court, accusing the BJP of 'forum hopping' also directed it to submit an amount of Rs 5 lakh with the Registrar General, as they had suppressed facts that they had moved both Supreme Court and High Court at the same time on the same issue.
TMC MP and lawyer for the state government Kalyan Banerjee said it was unprecedented for a court to stall a poll process. "The court's findings are not correct. We will definitely move division bench against the ruling," he said.
TMC senior leader and state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said that the victory celebration of the Opposition would be shortlived as the people of Bengal will give verdict in favour of the TMC.
Leaders of the Opposition parties, however, lauded the court's decision. "It is a victory of democracy. Maybe the poll results would be in favour of the TMC owing to their malpractices but the court's verdict today is our victory," said Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP national general secretary and co-convenor for Bengal.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, "Today's verdict is like an approval to our complaints of the TMC atrocities. It also justifies the six-hour bandh we have called on April 13."
State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said that their trust on the judiciary has been reinstated. "We cant trust the state government or the SEC. At least there is some platform where our grievances are heard and action taken on that basis. We feel reassured," he said.
The process of nomination which began on April 2 had ended on April 9. Withdrawal of nomination began on April 12 and was supposed to continue till April 16. The SEC, on April 9 had issued a notification saying the nomination process could be done on April 10 as well but in the morning of April he passed a fresh notification retracting the previous one and saying that no nomination would be submitted on April 10.
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