HC chides SEC, asks if poll is a money-making machine
During the hearing of a case where ballot papers were found strewn on the roads outside the counting centre at Hooghly’s Jangipara, the Calcutta High Court chided the State Election Commission (SEC), asking if the rural poll is being viewed as a five-year job contract where money can be made.
On the day of counting of votes, ballot papers were found lying on the road outside the counting centre at Jangipara’s DN High School.
The BDO of Jangipara was summoned by the court on Thursday in this regard.
The BDO is learnt to have informed the court that he had handed over the ballot papers to the returning officer. The BDO was asked to share the details of the returning officer.
It is learnt that although these ballot papers were unused they had the signature of the returning officer.
The court questioned how these ballot papers then landed on the streets outside the counting centre and whether the BDO can say with conviction that these papers were not misused by anyone.
The counsel of the petitioner Shaheen Sheikh said that there are high chances that these ballot papers were fake and were used for rigging votes.
The counsel of the SEC is learnt to have said that an election petition should be filed in this case since the polls are over and that the High Court should not accept the current petition.
Justice Amrita Sinha, who was hearing the case, is learnt to have asked the SEC counsel as to why incidents of violence are continuing even now. She asked the counsel whether he has any idea about how many petitions relating to the election have been resolved yet and who would bear the cost.
Justice Sinha observed that some persons are treating the election as a five-year job contract where money can be made. In the case concerned, she directed that the returning officer must submit his version through an affidavit by July 20. Also, CCTV footage of inside and outside the counting centre has been asked for and needs to be submitted by July 20 to the registrar general. Next hearing of the case will take place on July 24.
