No stay on Kolkata Municipal Elections, State Election Commission to disclose time schedule: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Elections and directed the State Election Commission to disclose a tentative time schedule for holding the elections, as was stated in an earlier order. .A Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Rajarshi Bharadwaj fixed December 23 as the next date of hearing..The Court was hearing a petition by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Pratap Banerjee seeking a stay on the upcoming Kolkata municipal polls as well as praying for simultaneous polls to the other municipalities where elections are pending.Counsel for the BJP leader had argued that no clear time schedule was released by the State Election Commission for the conduct of these elections. It was further contended that in the absence of VVPAT machines and the alleged non-issuance of a necessary public notice, the Court should stay the elections.Advocate General SN Mookherjee, appearing for the State, submitted that the said notice was issued and that the use of VVPATs has not been mandated by the top court for local elections such as these. He added that the pending elections to other municipalities will conclude by May 2022, and cited non-availability of VVPATs from the Election Commission, which had rejected its request to supply the same..The Court observed at the outset that in eleven municipalities, elections have not been held for the last three years."It is worth noting that the elections in these Municipalities fell due much before the onset of Covid 19 Pandemic, therefore, the State and Election Commission are not justified in taking shelter of Covid Pandemic for not holding the elections in these Municipalities within time," the order stated.In this context, it noted that a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Kishan Singh Tomar v. Municipal Corporation of the City of Ahmedabad and Others held that under Article 243-U, the constitutional mandate is to complete municipal elections in five years. It noted that the West Bengal government and the State Election Commission were "vague" in its reasons attributing COVID-19 and festivals for the delay in conducting the polls. Noting the respondents' concerns in going about the petitioner's prayer for simultaneous municipality polls, the Bench ruled:"Even if such a plea is correct then also sufficient EVMs are available to hold elections of remaining Municipalities in 2 phases...The plea of the respondent Nos. 2 and 3 proposing to hold the elections in 6 to 8 phases is not supported by any cogent material.".The Court further observed that since the polls to the municipal corporation in Kolkata are notified and upcoming, the prayer for simultaneous polls does not survive at this stage. It cited Article 243-ZG (b) of the Constitution in this regard, which bars interference in electoral matters.On the issue of mandatory use of VVPATs, the Court observed:"Hon’ble Supreme Court had clearly observes that the existing system is not doubted by the Court so far as fairness and integrity is concerned but had observed about increasing the machines which are subjected to verification of paper trail to reasonable number. These judgments are not relating to the local bodies elections and in none of these judgments it has been held that the elections should not be held if the VVPATs are not used."The Bench thus ruled that a direction to stay or postpone the polls is not required in the instant matter. It ordered compliance of its earlier order requiring the State Election Commission to disclose a tentative schedule for conducting elections of all municipal corporations/municipalities. The other directions in the previous order included:"ii. The State Election Commission is also directed to explore the possibility and feasibility of doing counting of votes of the Municipal Corporations/Municipal Elections after the polling is completed in all the Municipalities of the Municipal Corporation in the State. iii. The State Election Commission is expected not to declare the election of the Municipal bodies in the State in such a manner which will give benefit to one particular party.”"We expect that respondent Nos. 2 and 3 will take a decision in this regard keeping in mind their responsibility to uphold democratic principles and to carry out the mandate of the Constitution," the Court concluded..Senior Advocates Pinky Anand and Joydip Kar, along with Advocates Billwadal Bhattacharyya, Rajdeep Majumdar, Dhiraj Trivedi, Debanik Banerjee, Lokenath Chatterjee, Sayak Chakraborti, Moyukh Mukherjee, Anish Kumar Mukherjee and Amrit Sinha appeared for the petitioner.Advocates Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Imtiaz Ahmed, Sandipan Das, Pintu Karar, Akashdeep Mukherjee, Debolina Sarkar, Ankur Sharma, Sreejita Biswas and Senjuti Mukherjee represented the petitioner in a similar plea.Advocates A Ray Md TM Siddiqui, D Ghosh and N Chatterjee assisted the Advocate General for the State.Advocate Anuran Samanta appeared for the Election Commission of India, while Senior Advocates Jayanta Mitra and Abratosh Majumdar, along with Advocates Subhankar Nag and Sonal Sinha represented the State Election Commission..The Supreme Court was told on December 7 this year that members of the BJP were being beaten up and threatened to withdraw their candidature for these elections. On that date, the Bench said that it would look into the matter..Kolkata Municipal Corporation Elections: Opposition BJP members being beaten up, Supreme Court told.[Read order]