It said the court does not wish to interfere in the election process.
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday rejected a CPM petition seeking directions for the State Election Commission (SEC) to accept nominations for panchayat election through email. It said the court does not wish to interfere in the election process.
The CPM had filed the petition after Justice Subrata Talukdar on Tuesday directed the SEC to accept the nominations of nine candidates for Polerhat II Gram Panchayat at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district via WhatsApp. The candidates had pleaded that they had been prevented from filing the nominations.
The court observed that no special circumstance has warranted it to issue any such direction in response to the CPM’s petition.
“The CPM prayed that the nominations of its candidates which have been sent through email should be accepted. The court said that such a writ petition was not entertainable and disposed of it. The court also expressed anguish over the way all political parties were moving court on the same issue,” ruling Trinamool Congress lawyer Kalyan Banerjee said.
CPM’s lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya said that the nominations via WhatsApp on Monday were accepted after the 3 pm deadline for them had ended.
SEC Secretary Nilanjan Shandilya opposed the petition and said that the nine nominations were accepted “under special circumstances”.