The High Court of Calcutta on Friday directed the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) to file a report on allegations that only candidates of the ruling Trinamool Congress (AITC) were able to file nominations to contest from 274 seats in the Panchayat elections, scheduled to be held on July 8.
The Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta passed the order on a writ petition, which alleged that all 274 seats in a particular block were uncontested as none of the candidates from other parties could file nominations.
Observing that the trend of 274 seats remaining uncontested looked very ‘abnormal,’ the High Court directed the SEC to file a report on the issues highlighted in the plea by the next date of hearing, which was fixed on June 25.
The Bench noted that it was examining a larger issue on whether it was feasible that 274 seats could remain uncontested and that there was not even a single person who was desirous of filing his nomination for any one of the seats in 10 gram panchayats, 30 panchayat samitis and three zilla parishads.
The counsel appearing for the petitioner contended that he was losing his Constitutional right to choose a candidate, his electoral representative.
Earlier on Thursday, the matter was mentioned before the single-judge Bench of Justice Amrita Sinha. She had orally observed that 274 seats going uncontested could not be accepted.
The counsel for the petitioner had yesterday claimed that candidates were prevented from coming out of their houses during the nomination period and that they had encountered violence during this time.
Initially, the Single-Judge Bench had questioned whether any intervention could be possible when the last date for filing nominations (June 15) had passed.
Justice Sinha, after hearing the submissions by the petitioner, Justice Sinha, however, directed the SEC to file a report on whether they had taken any action in response to a complaint stated to have been sent via email on June 15 about the alleged violence that took place during the filing of nominations.