Civic polls: HC asks SEC to submit affidavits on Covid situation, infra within 48 hours

KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to submit an affidavit within 48 hours with details of containment zones in the four civic bodies where elections are scheduled to be held on January 22.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Kesong Doma Bhutia, during the hearing of public interest litigation filed by Bimal Bhattacharya (a resident of Howrah) seeking postponement of civic polls amid rise in Covid cases in the state, also ordered the SEC to submit another affidavit giving details of the infrastructure for conducting the polls in Bidhannagar, Asansol, Chandannagar and Siliguri municipal corporations.

The court also asked the SEC to mention in the affidavit to what steps the commission is taking to conduct a fair and risk-averse vote in view of the increasing COVID-19 positive cases in the state.

Earlier, the SEC had informed the court that it was ready in the remaining municipal corporations.

While the SEC had announced that voting in four municipal corporations — Siliguri, Chandernagore, Bidhannagar and Asansol— will be held on January 22, it left out Howrah Municipal Corporation, reasoning that it has received no communication regarding the polls from the state government, as yet.

The nomination filing for the January 22 polls commenced on December 28 and the last date for submitting nomination is January 3. The date for scrutiny of nomination was on January 4 while January 6 has been fixed as the last date for withdrawing the nominations.

"SEC will have to file the affidavit at 10.30 am on Friday. The next hearing will be on January 13, 2022," said Advocate Bikram Banerjee, counsel of the petitioner.