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The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) is preparing to file a review petition in the Kolkata High Court against the order of the Divisional Assembly to deploy the Central Armed Forces in the state in the July 8 panchayat elections.
We take a legal opinion. “It is likely that on Thursday we will file a review petition in the Supreme Court,” a senior SEC official told the Indian Express.
According to the sources, the SEC has a problem with the use of the term “central forces” in the Supreme Court order, and would urge the board to change it to “armed forces” instead.
The state government did not agree to the introduction of central forces. Instead of the central forces, we are consulting with other countries to send requests to the armed forces to fulfill
Another official of the Supreme Education Council added, “The armed forces are insufficient for the voting process.”
As a result, the SEC, instead of issuing requests for central forces from the Union government, is already in talks with some non-BJP states for additional forces.
“We have consulted with the governments in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh (- all non-BJP states). In our preliminary talks, all these states agreed to send their forces to West Bengal. The main focus of the Supreme Court is to conduct Free and fair elections require more troops.The court has never said that we can only apply to the central forces.So, in order to have free and fair elections, we can bring in troops from other countries as well.
In its order issued on Tuesday, Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam’s Divisional Office and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya, while listening to a set of PILs presented by opposition leaders, said: “From the Central Forces to work together with the police force in West Bengal to ensure free and fair elections.”
Citing the petitioners’ claim that there is an “insufficient police force” to cover all polling stations when elections are held, the Supreme Court said: “…where there is an insufficient state police force, in all such areas, the SEC shall require the deployment of forces Paramilitary.
Citing media reports of violence during the ongoing nomination process and recalling the 2018 Panchayat Elections, the court added that the polling committee “will immediately forward requests for deployment of central forces in all districts/constituencies…. declared sensitive”.
The court also directed the SEC to videotape the entire voting process in booths that lacked CCTV facilities and to preserve the footage.
The committee has already requested videotaping of the submission of nominations, the vetting of nominations, the withdrawal of candidates and the screening process.
However, the House refused to change the election schedule as petitioners sought and left it to the Securities and Exchange Commission to extend the deadline for the nomination process.
In the three-tiered panchayat elections, approximately 5.67 crore voters are set to exercise their privilege to select representatives for approximately 74,000 seats in Zilla Parisad, Samitis panchayat and panchayat. Voting will take place on July 8, and counting is scheduled for July 11.
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