The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Calcutta High Court order allowing the deployment of central forces during panchayat elections in West Bengal, Live Law reported.
The High Court had directed the West Bengal State Election Commission last week to deploy the central paramilitary forces in the state in view of violence reported ahead of the July 8 local body polls. The High Court passed the order on a bunch of pleas filed by Opposition leaders, who have alleged that the violence has disrupted the nomination process of their party’s candidates.
On Tuesday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Manoj Misra dismissed petitions filed by the West Bengal government and the state poll panel challenging the High Court order.
“...The tenor of the order of the High Court is ultimately to ensure that free and fair election is conducted,” the judges noted, according to Live Law. The judges took into consideration the fact that elections to 75,000 panchayat seats across 61,000 polling booths are scheduled to be held in a single day.
In an oral observation, the judges said that the state election commission should be concerned about free and fair polling, and not which forces are being deployed.
Several incidents of violence have been reported in West Bengal since the nomination process for the polls started on June 9. At least six persons have been killed in the violence, according to the Hindustan Times.
On Tuesday, Justice Nagarathna said that holding elections cannot become a “licence for violence”, Live Law reported. “If peple are not able to file their nominations and if they are finished off while they are going to file it then, where is the free and fair election?” the judge asked at the hearing.
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