A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the West Bengal Election Commission and the Trinamool Congress to file appeals seeking urgent hearing of a plea challenging its order to put the panchayat elections in West Bengal on hold, PTI reported.
State Election Commission Secretary Nilanjan Shandilya and Trinamool Congress Vice President Kalyan Banerjee had made a verbal plea before the bench seeking urgent hearing of their petition. The bench comprising Justice B Somadder and A Mukherjee asked them to first file their appeals and serve notice to all parties involved. The bench said it would hear the matter on Monday.
Elections to the three-tier local body structure – zilla parishads, panchayat samitis, and gram panchayats – were scheduled for May 1, 3 and 5. The results were to be declared on May 8.
The BJP and some other Opposition candidates have accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of stopping them from filing nominations. After the BJP filed a plea in the Supreme Court asking it to extend the last date for nominations, the bench asked the party to approach the Calcutta High Court instead.
The High Court on Thursday stayed the panchayat election process and asked the state election commission to file a status report in the matter.
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