SC lobs uncontested ball back, CM smiles

R. Balaji, TT, Aug 25, 2018, New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to direct fresh polling for the 20,000-odd seats decided uncontested in the May 14 Bengal panchayat elections, asking complainants to move election petitions with the district courts if they thought the poll process had been vitiated.

It said it did not want to "prejudge" whether candidates had been prevented from filing nominations for each of these seats, but added that the (Opposition) allegation of "large-scale obstruction" was "a serious matter" and should be decided case by case.

Two key elements of the judgment by the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud:

• The election petitions are to be filed within 30 days of the results of the uncontested seats - won mostly by the ruling Trinamul Congress - being notified in the gazette, which is expected in a day or two. The apex court had stayed the notification process in May.

• The apex court has ruled that Calcutta High Court was wrong to direct the state election commission to accept nominations online, even over email or WhatsApp, after some Independent candidates from Bhangar, South 24-parganas, alleged they were prevented from physically filing them.

In Calcutta, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said in the evening: "To me, it is a victory of democracy, a victory of the people, which I want to dedicate to the people of the nation.... We stand vindicated by the decision."

A senior lawyer said the Supreme Court should have taken the decision faster while another expressed the fear that the district courts could be clogged with many petitions. 

The apex court said Bengal's panchayati raj act stipulated that candidates must appear in person to file their nominations, and the high court order "clearly transgressed the permissible area within which the jurisdiction under Article 226 (power to invoke a high court's authority) could have been exercised".

It said "any reform of the electoral process to permit the filing of nominations electronically" needs a "legislative amendment".

On the uncontested seats, the court said: "For this court to set aside elections to over 20,000 seats would be to prejudge the basic issue as to whether in each of those constituencies, the election stands vitiated by obstruction... (of) candidates from filing their nominations. A general assumption of this nature cannot be made. (The matter should) depend upon the evidence adduced in the facts of individual cases."

The judgment cites how the West Bengal Panchayati Raj Act stipulates that "if any dispute arises as to the validity of an election under this act, any person entitled to vote at such election may, within 30 days after the date of declaration of the results of such election, file a petition, calling in question such election...."

However, since 30 days have long passed since the results of these 20,000-odd seats were declared (but not notified), the apex court said it was extending the deadline for filing election petitions to 30 days after the gazette notification of the results.

Some 20,076 of the 58,692 seats - 34.2 per cent - across the three tiers were decided uncontested, a figure the apex court had last month described as "shocking".

The court had earlier disposed of Opposition petitions, which had sought quashing of the poll results, telling them to approach Calcutta High Court.

Friday's ruling came on a state election commission plea challenging the high court directive to accept nominations online.