Calcutta High Court sends Panchayat poll case back to single bench

The division bench of Calcutta High Court sent the case of the Panchayat Election process back to the single bench on Monday, making it more difficult to complete the election process by the slated time.

The division bench of Justice Biswanath Samaddar and Justice Arindam Mukherjee said that since the hearing was on at the single bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar, the single bench will decide on it and that the division bench would not interfere in the process. The division bench also requested the single bench to ensure fast expedition of the case and if need be there could be a hearing everyday. The next hearing at the single bench is at 2 pm on Tuesday.

During the hearing at the division bench on Monday, which began at 10.30am, the court rapped secretary of the State Election Commission, Nilanjan Shandilya, who began his submission by saying, "I am not an expert in law."

"You have to be an expert of Panchayat law. You are the secretary of SEC and you are representing it here," the court said. Shandilya was not able to answer convincingly to the court when it asked him whether he was supporting the appeal of the political party (TMC in this case).

TMC MP and senior lawyer, with his histrionics, tried to convince the court that the High Court did not have any power to supervise the things and that the poll process should not have been stalled in the first place.

The division bench, however, said that since the case was on at the single bench, it was not going to make any observation because even half an observation would prejudice the mind of the court.

The division bench then asked the counsel for the state about the tenure of the panchayats in the state, to which it was found out that the tenure ended in August, 2018.