February: The Calcutta High Court Circuit Bench in Jalpaiguri has ordered that status quo be maintained and elections not be held in the Darjeeling municipality till April 30.
Challenging the state government's appointment of an administrator in the Darjeeling municipality, 15 councillors had filed a writ petition at the Circuit Bench.
Justice Amrita Sinha on hearing the writ petition ordered that elections cannot be held in the municipality
till April 30. The next date of hearing has been fixed on April 24.
"Our writ petition has been admitted. We had prayed for an interim order that elections not be held now as two and a half years tenure of the present board remains. We hope that the matter will be settled in the next hearing," stated Anand Bhandari, lawyer representing the 15 councillors.
Incidentally, an impasse had occurred in the Darjeeling municipality since May 29, 2019, with a group of councillors submitting a memorandum to Prativa Rai Tamang, Chairperson asking her to prove her majority.
They claimed that they had 17 councillors with them in
the existing house of 30 with the board owing allegiance
to the Binay Tamang faction
of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
Later, the councillors who had tried to bring the motion of no confidence stopped attending office. They were not seen in town and had even gone underground.
Finally, on June 18, 2019, the Darjeeling municipality was dissolved and the Additional District Magistrate was appointed as an administrator vide an order from the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal.