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Kolkata. The Kolkata High Court on Wednesday said that the West Bengal panchayat ( panchayat ) elections and the declaration of its results will depend on its final order in connection with the hearing of matters relating to allegations of electoral rigging on the day of polling. The court has directed the State Election Commission (SEC), the state government and the central government to file affidavits on three petitions alleging electoral rigging.
The High Court said, “…the election process and the declaration of its result will depend on the orders that may be passed in this writ petition.” has been declared. Alleging large-scale violence and election rigging in the July 8 panchayat polls in the state, the petitions have sought a direction to the commission to conduct re-polling in nearly 50,000 polling stations.
Allegations of election rigging
Re-polling was conducted at 696 centers and the counting of votes started on 11 July. One of the petitioners had shown a video showing the alleged election rigging on the day of polling. The court has directed the petitioner to provide a copy of this video to the commission, state government and central lawyers by Wednesday. The court directed that the matter be placed before it on July 19 for hearing.
Expressing displeasure towards the State Election Commission, the bench said that prima facie it appears that the reply of the Commission is not adequate and on Wednesday also none of its officials were present in the court to give necessary instructions to their lawyers. “It is not clear why the commission is not already active, especially when the court is monitoring the entire process and the first judgment was delivered on June 13,” the court said.
Violence did not stop even after the results
The court had issued a series of guidelines for conducting the three-tier panchayat elections in a free and fair manner. The court said that it is surprising that even after the announcement of the election results, the state is not able to stop the violence. “If the state government is not in a position to protect its citizens, then it is a very serious matter,” the court said.
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