Panchayat elections: SC dismisses pleas challenging HC order on deployment of central forces in West Bengal

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with an order of the Calcutta High Court directing the State Election Commission to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the July 8 panchayat polls, and observed that holding election cannot be a "license for violence".

The apex court, which dismissed the pleas filed by the West Bengal government and the State Election Commission (SEC) challenging the high court order, said the tenor of the high court order was ultimately to ensure free and fair election in the state.

"Holding election cannot be a license for violence," a vacation bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice Manoj Misra observed during the hearing.

"The fact remains that the tenor of the order of the high court is ultimately to ensure that there is free and fair election conducted in the entire state of West Bengal since the state is conducting the said elections for the local bodies on a single date and having regard to the number of seats which are going to the polls…," the bench said.

It said the order of the high court would not call for any interference and the top court is not inclined to interfere with any other directions issued by the high court in this regard.

The bench noted that advocates representing the state and the SEC have contended that the high court's direction for requisition and deployment of central forces for all the districts in West Bengal ought to be interfered with by the apex court. The SEC's counsel said it was not within the jurisdiction of the commission to requisition deployment of central forces for the conduct of elections.

During the hearing, the bench observed that elections cannot be accompanied by violence.

It said if people are not able to go and file their nominations or those who have filed their nominations are ultimately finished off or there are group clashes, then where is free and fair elections.

The counsel appearing for the state said sometimes, facts and figures are different from the impressions.

The high court on June 15 directed the SEC to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the panchayat elections within 48 hours.

The court had noted that no appreciable steps have been taken ever since an order was passed by it on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the poll process.

The high court had directed the SEC to requisition the deployment of central forces for all the districts in the state which were rocked by violence over filing of nominations for the July 8 panchayat elections.

Noting that till date, no effective steps have been taken to identify sensitive areas from the law and order point of view and in light of the SEC's submission that it may take a couple of days more to do so, the court had said, "Waiting any longer will cause more damage to the situation, and will not aid in protecting the purity of the election process." The high court had directed the Centre to deploy the required number of central forces and that the cost of it will be borne by the Union government and no part of it will be charged to the state.

The court had on June 13 directed requisition and deployment of central forces forthwith in the areas and districts declared sensitive by the SEC.

The SEC was directed to thereafter review the assessment plan submitted by the state and wherever there is inadequacy of the state police force, paramilitary force will be deployed.

Opposition leaders, including the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, had petitioned the court for deployment of central forces for ensuring peaceful elections, stating the state had witnessed large-scale violence during the municipal elections in 2022 and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections in 2021.

They had also prayed for an extension of the last date of nomination claiming that the time given was not adequate. The court had left it to the SEC to consider the prayer.