While the Calcutta High Court on Thursday (April 12) ordered that the violence-torn panchayat poll process in West Bengal be stayed till further orders, it also slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the state BJP for keeping the Calcutta High Court in the ark while it also approached the Supreme Court on the issue, a process that Justice Subrata Talukdar called “forum hopping.”

Justice Talukdar also directed the State Election Commission to file a full status report by Monday, detailing the nominations filed and the percentage of nominations rejected.

On that day the court will also hear pleas against the SEC’s decision to withdraw its April 9 notification, which had extended the date for filing nominations by a day.

On April 10 Justice Talukdar had stayed the withdrawal of the SEC’s April 9 notification

The complaint from opposition parties in the state (mainly the state BJP) has been that the Trinamool Congress was not allowing nominations to be filed and was resorting to violence. The Congress too had complained.

–         India Legal Bureau