West Bengal panchayat election: Calcutta High Court slams SEC, State for 'non-cooperation' with Central government to avert violence

The Calcutta High Court Wednesday pulled up the West Bengal government and the State Election Commission (SEC) for failing to 'co-operate' with the Central government for deployment of the central forces during the panchayat polls held on July 8 [Suvendu Adhikari vs Rajiv Sinha, State Election Commissioner]..A division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar noted that the SEC, till date, has not shared the information pertaining to sensitive constituencies, where more security would be needed to avert violence. It noted that no proper deployment plan was shared by the SEC and the State government with the force coordinator of the Central government, which is overseeing the deployment of central forces in the State."The reason for passing so many orders was to ensure that polling, counting etc takes place peacefully. Either you (SEC) fall in line or let the Force Coordinator decide which battalion will be deployed where. Let him take the decisions (for deployment of forces) and you both (SEC and State) will have to adhere with it. It's too much now," the Chief Justice remarked.The bench opined that the existing deployment plan was not proper."Therefore, the deployment of forces for the next 10 days, will be decided by the Central Government's Force Coordinator. The Force Coordinator will take a decision after meeting the Director General of Police (DGP), Chief Secretary and the State Force Coordinator and accordingly deployment plan can be chalked out," the bench ordered..During the hearing, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Ashoke Kumar Chakraborty furnished a report prepared by the Central government's force coordinator.The report stated that despite the force coordiantior's full cooperation, the support and response of SEC and State authorities were found wanting. "Core issue was non-cooperation of SEC for not providing sensitive booths and constituency's information. Thus, central forces weren't deployed in sensitive constituencies, which should have effectively manned the process and ensured no violence takes place. For movement from one district to another no facilities were made available by the SEC," the report highlighted.The bench expressed its displeasure over the conduct of the SEC and 'prima facie' said if the contents are true, it would amount to wilful disobedience of the court's order by the SEC."If whatever has been stated in the report, proves to be true, then it is highly unbecoming of the Commission. Our orders attained finality, the commission accepted our orders. But what is this? This is a grim situation. No travelling and boarding facilities provided? You (SEC) could have said you won't comply with our orders. This is our prima facie view. If what is said in this report is true then it shows very sorry state of affairs," the Chief Justice underscored.Some parts of the report are "very damaging," the bench noted. "You shouldn't have made the order unworkable. Report shows some officers were injured. Some people tried to enter a booth, the officer closed the door and then someone hurled a bomb and then beat the personnel black and blue. What is this?" the bench observed. Further, the bench pointed out that despite its clear order to the SEC and the State to 'work in tandem' with the Central government, the commission failed to do so. "We made an endeavour to bring everyone under one umbrella but you do not want to share the umbrella. Every day there are allegations. Even if we sit for entire 2023 and 2024, we won't be able to complete the hearing in these matters being filed daily. The non-cooperation allegation is very disturbing. This is a very very serious issue," the bench underlined.The bench lamented that it had earlier observed that the State Election Commissioner cannot be removed from office. Despite that, the SEC did not conduct itself as per the Court's directions."While dismissing two PILs (earlier) we had in our orders observed that you (SEC) cannot be removed from office and that you are an constitutional authority etc. Time and again we have reposed faith in you and you are behaving like this. We do not approve of such conduct."With these observations, the bench ordered the SEC and the State to file their responses to the report of the Central government by July 19. The matter would be heard again on July 26.