The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to reschedule the panchayat polls in West Bengal in five phases starting from July 11, saying that the court could not reschedule the elections owing to constitutional mandate and unavailability of security forces before 11 July. Pleas were made to the court seeking fresh dates in view of Ramazan.
A bench of Justice A K Patnaik and Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the plea that holding the polls in the month of Ramazan could adveresely affect the participation of Muslims, saying that it weighed all these options before passing its 28 June order for holding five-phase panchayat polls in the state. Holding that it was sensitive to the rights of one-third of the state's Muslim population, the court said the mandate of the Constitution could not be disregarded.
The court asked the state government to issue notification on the elections in pursuance to its order.
Earlier on 28 June, putting an end around two months of tussle between the West Bengal state government and state election commission, the Supreme Court had rescheduled the panchayat poll in the state. The poll was earlier scheduled to be held in three phases from 2 July. The state government had been locked in a legal tussle with the West Bengal State Election Commission on various issues related to the panchayat polls for the past couple of months and the matter was in the Calcutta high court. The matter had reached the apex court when the poll panel approached it for adequate security forces to hold free and fair elections in the state.
The same bench had directed the SEC to hold the five-phase election on 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25 July. The court had directed the state government to provide on an average 35,000 security personnel for each phase of the election and rest of the requirement of security forces will be provided by the central government. Rescheduling the election, the bench said that all other consequential notifications are to be done by the concerned authorities as per the order.
A bench of Justice A K Patnaik and Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the plea that holding the polls in the month of Ramazan could adveresely affect the participation of Muslims, saying that it weighed all these options before passing its 28 June order for holding five-phase panchayat polls in the state. Holding that it was sensitive to the rights of one-third of the state's Muslim population, the court said the mandate of the Constitution could not be disregarded.
The court asked the state government to issue notification on the elections in pursuance to its order.
Earlier on 28 June, putting an end around two months of tussle between the West Bengal state government and state election commission, the Supreme Court had rescheduled the panchayat poll in the state. The poll was earlier scheduled to be held in three phases from 2 July. The state government had been locked in a legal tussle with the West Bengal State Election Commission on various issues related to the panchayat polls for the past couple of months and the matter was in the Calcutta high court. The matter had reached the apex court when the poll panel approached it for adequate security forces to hold free and fair elections in the state.
The same bench had directed the SEC to hold the five-phase election on 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25 July. The court had directed the state government to provide on an average 35,000 security personnel for each phase of the election and rest of the requirement of security forces will be provided by the central government. Rescheduling the election, the bench said that all other consequential notifications are to be done by the concerned authorities as per the order.