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| Mamata govt to challenge HC order on panchayat polls | | | Agencies
KOLKATA, May 10 : The Mamata Banerjee government, which received a major blow on Friday when Calcutta high court ordered three-phase panchayat elections, has decided to move division bench challenging the judgement.
In a media conference after the much-awaited judgment, panchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee said, "It seems some people don't want the panchayat elections to be held on time. The directions given in the order are impossible to follow. We shall move division bench against it on Monday."
High on Friday upheld the primacy of the State Election Commission that had opposed the government's diktat on holding a two-phased rural polls, sans central forces. The court directed the government to furnish a list of 400 observers, as the State Election Commission (SEC) has been seeking before and after it dragged the Mamata Banerjee to court.
The government has also been directed to provide details of adequate armed forces that can include central forces and forces from other states. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who left for a scheduled tour of the districts soon after the judgment, refused comment when confronted by the media at Writers' Buildings. Earlier her government had insisted that it had the powers to announce the dates and the polls must be held in April and declared an open war with state election commissioner Mira Pandey.
Government lawyer Ashok Mukherjee evaded specific replies when reporters wanted to know if he thought that the court had actually supported the SEC in its fight against the Mamata Banerjee government while upholding the poll panel's demands for central paramilitary forces to provide security cover and ordering a three-phase poll. "I am yet to read the order. I shall be able to comment only when it is posted on the web after 7 pm," he told reporters at the court.
SEC must announce the dates by Saturday, the court has ruled. The court not only asked for a security cover by central paramilitary forces, it had also asked the government to ensure the funding of the forces.
Article 241 (k) of the Constitution upholds the primacy of the SEC in deciding when and how to conduct elections. But the West Bengal panchayat poll legislation empowers the government to announce the dates in consultation with the SEC. Lawyers have been referring to Supreme Court verdicts on the issue upholding the supremacy of the SEC in deciding polls at the panchayat and urban local body levels.
The SEC had dragged the state government to the court on April 1, capping weeks of bickering with the state government over the village council elections. In the light of the conflict, the SEC moved the high court seeking a judicial review of its authority vis-a-vis that of the state government to conduct the polls. The Mamata Banerjee government had been initially demanding a one-phase poll in December and January which the SEC turned down for several reasons such as revision of electoral rolls. Thereafter came the board exams. On March 22, the state then toned down and came up with a unilateral notification of a two-phase polls scheduled on April 26 and 30. The commission called the notification unacceptable, insisted that it must establish its authority to ensure that the polls were not rigged and reiterated its demand for a three-phase poll to be held under the vigilance of central security forces. |
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