SC refuses to interfere in West Bengal local elections

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a petition by the Bharatiya Janata Party to reschedule the local panchayat elections in West Bengal.
The court also rejected the BJP's request for the deployment of central paramilitary forces.
The party had also sought the availability of nomination papers online and the extension of the last date for filing the nomination.
A bench of Justice R K Agrawal and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, however, allowed all Political parties and their candidates as well as independents to approach the State Election Commission to get their grievance addressed.
'We are not inclined to interfere with the ongoing panchayat elections, Justice Agrawal said, adding that the top court by its earlier judgment had ruled that 'once the election process has been set in motion, the court ought not to interfere ...
The process for panchayat election, to be held on May 1, 3, and 5, had commenced on April 2.
The court referred to the provisions of the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act, 2003 which empowers the State Election Commission to entertain any grievance raised by a political party which has fielded candidates, or its individual candidate or even independent candidates.
'We hope and trust that in order to ensure fair and free election to the panchayats, the State Election Commission shall take appropriate steps to remove the apprehensions of petitioner party BJP or the intending candidates and 'they may not be deprived of their chance to contest the panchayat elections, the court said.
The BJP's West Bengal unit had filed the petition in the top court seeking the deployment of paramilitary forces alleging that its candidates were being blocked from filing their nomination papers and were being targeted by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress.
The Trinamool welcomed the court's decision, saying the collective attempt of the opposition parties to hinder the election process has 'failed.
'We welcome the verdict of the Supreme Court. Our party has always been respectful towards the court and Indian judicial system. Our faith in the court's judgment could not be tampered by the collective efforts of all the opposition parties here, Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee said in Kolkata.
'The Congress moved the (Calcutta) High Court and the BJP the Supreme Court regarding the panchayat polls. But all attempts of all the opposition parties to delay the rural election process have failed. The court's verdict is a reflection of people's wish to apply their democratic right to vote, he said.
Chatterjee claimed that the opposition parties are busy playing the 'victim card as they lack organisational strength to field candidates in all the available seats and refuted their allegation of violence by the ruling party as baseless.
'The opposition parties have filed nomination in more than 49% seats in the three-layered election process. If there were so much opposition from the ruling party, how did they manage to do so? No one would believe them, he said.
State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, however claimed that the onus is now on Election Commission to ensure a free and fair election process after the court's verdict.
'The Supreme Court has asked the State Election Commission to conduct free and fair election process here. According to the written judgment, the apex court has clearly directed the SEC to conduct the election peacefully. So if someone fails to file nomination, it is now the SEC's responsibility to help him out and also assure the candidate's safety, said Ghosh, while accepting that the court's verdict has not gone the way they wanted to.
'Our representatives have taken 1,000 forms of our candidates across the state. But they were not able to file the nomination due to the violence of ruling party. The State Election Commissioner said he would look into it and sought time from us to look into it, he added.

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