NO MORE DIDI-DALLYING SC rejects govt plea; polls from July 11

TT, New Delhi, July 2: The Supreme Court today ordered the Bengal government to stop “dilly-dallying” and notify the panchayat elections from July 11 to 25, dismissing petitions that sought changes because the schedule fell in the holy Ramazan month.

Shorn of options, chief minister Mamata Banerjee described the verdict as “good” and the government issued the notification this evening as directed by the court. The chief minister added that “we have recorded our views in the Supreme Court”. 

An elated state election commissioner Mira Pande told The Telegraph after the court order: “Our endeavour is to implement the Supreme Court order and we will do it. Now we will be able to conduct the polls as scheduled.”

The stinging, but not surprising, setback to the government was capped with an assertion by the top court that the Constitution had to be upheld.

The court said it respected religious sentiments, taking care to ascertain if the dates could be advanced in some minority-dominated areas. But the Centre expressed its inability to deploy forces before July 10.

Dismissing the applications of the government and two NGOs, a special bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi decided to stick to the five-phase poll order issued by the same judges who manned the vacation bench.

The apex court said that since Article 243E of the Constitution clearly stipulated that panchayat polls should be held before the expiry of the five-year terms, the state was duty-bound to the provision. The judiciary cannot violate the constitutional provision by postponing the elections, the court said.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi and K. Venugopal, representing the two NGOs separately, sought postponement or advancement of polling on the ground that one-third of the state’s population belonged to the minority community.

However, the bench said it had chalked out the schedule last Friday after obtaining the views of the state government through senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam who had admitted that the term of the panchayats was already over.

“Kindly read Article 243E. Actually it (the polls) should have been completed. As judges of the Supreme Court and the high court, they have to go by the Constitution,” said Justice Patnaik, heading the special bench that was constituted today keeping in mind the composition of the vacation bench.

“Then tell us what do we do. We have to ensure (the polls) are held peacefully. Therefore, tell us, should we violate it because of the Ramazan (month)? You are all constitutional experts and we are here to uphold the Constitution,” Justice Patnaik added.

Turning to senior counsel and Trinamul MP Kalyan Banerjee, representing the state government, the judge said: “You have been working on it (dates) for how long? Should we bypass the Constitution?”

“We like to respect the sentiments,” the bench said and asked additional solicitor-general Rakesh Khanna, who represented the Centre, whether it was possible to advance by two days the polling scheduled for July 11 in certain Muslim-dominated areas as suggested by Rohtagi.

Khanna said the central forces were expected to reach Calcutta by July 8 and it would take at least another two days for deployment in interior villages.

Kalyan Banerjee intervened to say: “We can send our own 50,000 forces.”

It was then that Justice Patnaik said: “If you want the polls, you have to go by the high court order instead of dilly-dallying.”

The court then passed the order that said: “We cannot modify the schedule of the elections…. The state government shall issue notifications….”