On Tuesday, June 20, the Supreme Court of India refused to stay the order of the Calcutta High Court directing the deployment of central forces for the upcoming Panchayat Polls in West Bengal. The State Election Commission and West Bengal Government had approached the apex court against Calcutta High Court’s two orders passed on the plea of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was also a party in the matter.
In its order, a vacation bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Manoj Mishra observed that the orders passed by the High Court were to ensure fair and free elections in the state. Notably, following West Bengal Assembly Elections, multiple reports of violence occurred where ruling party TMC’s workers allegedly attacked BJP supporters across the state. The matters related to the violence are under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The bench ordered, “Order of High Court does not call for any interference. We are not interfering with any direction of the High Court. Appeals stand dismissed.” During the hearing, the apex court made a strong remark saying that holding elections cannot be a license for violence, and the High Court had seen earlier incidents of violence in the state.
During the hearing, the state informed the apex court that the agencies made no demarcations as sensitive areas for the upcoming elections. The orders passed by the high court applied to all regions, whether sensitive or not.
Furthermore, the court was informed that the HC directed the SEC to requisition central forces from the state government. However, it was the state’s task, not SEC’s; thus, the state election body could not do anything. The SEC said, “We can only ask for the force, and from where they get it is not something we look at.”
Appearing for the respondents, Senior Advocate Harish Salve stated the mindset of equating central forces deployment as an invading army was incorrect. He said, “It is only the source of getting the forces, and it is nothing on deployment.. no High Court will ever direct that head of the force will decide on deployment… there is a problem in this state, which has manifested several times…”
Furthermore, he informed the apex court that by June 14, the state government had no assessment plan about the deployment though the process should have been started much earlier. He said, “State is just embarrassed to say that we do not have forces, but we do not want central forces.”
For SEC, senior advocate Meenakshi Arora appeared in the apex court. She informed the court that the SEC was working on identifying the sensitive poll booths. She also called HC remarks that SEC was not doing anything incorrect. “189 poll booths have been recognised as sensitive… I am aggrieved by two directions of the High Court … It says the Election Commission should decide on the requisition of forces, and deployment has to be in sync with sensitive and non-sensitive ones,” she stated.
The court said, “Holding elections cannot be a license for violence, and HC has seen earlier instances of violence; elections cannot be accompanied by violence. If persons are not able to file their nominations and if they are finished off while they are going to file it, then where is the free and fair election.”
On June 15, the Calcutta High Court criticised the West Bengal State Election Commission for “dragging its feet” over the deployment of central forces. In their plea, BJP and Congress leaders had sought the deployment of central forces.