The High Court ordered the commission to re-schedule the election process.
In a setback to the West Bengal government and State Election Commission (SEC), the Calcutta High Court on Friday quashed the poll body’s decision to cancel the notification extending the nomination deadline for the panchayat elections. It ordered the commission to re-schedule the election process.
According to the single-judge bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar, the April 12 order staying the election process will be lifted once the SEC issues fresh notification extending the filing of nomination.
It will now be up to the state poll body to decide on whether to extend the nomination process, keeping valid the nominations received till its earlier deadline of April 9, or to begin the entire process afresh. Sources in the SEC said a decision will be made once it has studied the verdict. The government has said it will not challenge the High Court verdict.
The bench was hearing a clutch of petitions from the Opposition parties that claimed that the poll process was marred by violence and that the SEC had unfairly revoked its April 10 notification that extended the nomination deadline by a day.
“The order cancelling the extension of the day/date for filing nominations as issued by the Commission dated 10th April, 2018 stands quashed,” read the bench order. “The Commission is directed, upon consultation with the State and the major collective stakeholders, to issue a fresh notification extending the day/date for filing nominations. The Commission shall then reschedule the further dates in the election process as per statutory framework…”
“It is a victory for the people of the state who believe in democracy,” said state BJP general secretary Pratap Banerjee who had moved the court first.
“We always respect the judiciary. We will hope that the state election commission will now hold the election as soon as possible following the direction of the high court and according to state panchayat election laws,” said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The election was earlier scheduled to be held on May 1, 3 and 5, with the counting on May 8.