Conduct of polls no licence to violence: SC to West Bengal govt

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Calcutta High Court's orders for deployment of central forces during the West Bengal Panchayat polls, saying conduct of elections cannot be a licence to commit violence.

A vacation bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Manoj Mishra dismissed two separate petitions filed by the Mamata Banerjee government and the State Election Commission against the June 13 and June 15 orders of the High Court's division bench.

"The order of the high court does not call for any interference. We are not interfering with any other direction of the high court too. All the appeals stand dismissed,” the bench said in its written order.

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After hearing senior advocates Meenakshi Arora, Devadatt Kamat and Siddharth Bhatnagar on behalf of the SEC and WB government, and senior advocates Harish Salve, Maninder Singh, Vivek Tankha and Guru Krishna Kumar on the other side, the bench said the tenor of the High Court order is to ensure that free and fair elections are conducted in the state since polls are being conducted for all the booths on the same day.

The three-tier WB panchayat polls are scheduled for July 8.

During the hearing, the court noted that the state government itself has sought extra forces from Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and others in an acknowledgement of the fact that the state police was not adequate to deal with the situation.

"The High Court must have thought why half a dozen states? Let central forces be brought in,” the bench said.

The bench said free and fair elections are a hallmark of grassroots democracy. The deployment of central forces across all districts of the state will ascertain decorum not only at sensitive booths but at all the booths in the state, it added.

The court also pulled up the SEC as to how it was aggrieved by the order for deployment of central forces as the body itself has asked for additional forces.

"Where do the forces come from, how are you bothered? How is your petition maintainable? The high court order is in fact in aid to discharging your responsibility whether you have state forces, or central forces or from other states, you cannot have any concern,” the bench told the SEC's counsel.

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"You can in fact be rest assured that there will be free and fair election not only at sensitive booths but also at all other booths. Conduct of elections cannot be a licence to violence. However, having regard to the history of violence and past incidents, the high court entertained the petition, and decided to pass these orders. You don't have a reason to be aggrieved,” the bench told the SEC.

The Calcutta HC had passed its directions on a batch of petitions filed by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and others.

At least six people have been killed in the violence since the announcement of polls on June 9, with Opposition leaders alleging candidates not belonging to ruling parties were prevented from filing their nomination papers.