Contempt order can't bring back lives lost during course of panchayat polls: Calcutta High Court

Court was hearing contempt petitions against poll panel for not obeying high court order related to conducting rural polls filed by Suvendu Adhikari and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury

Tapas Ghosh, TT, Calcutta, 27.07.23 : A division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam of Calcutta High Court on Wednesday observed that lives of those who died during the course of the panchayat polls could not be brought back by issuing a contempt rule against the State Election Commission.

The court was hearing contempt petitions against the poll panel for not obeying a high court order related to conducting the rural polls filed by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury.

Speaking in court, the Chief Justice said: “The lives of those who died during the panchayat polls cannot be brought back by issuing a contempt rule against the State Election Commission.”

The petitioners had sought an order from the court asking the SEC why contempt proceedings should not be brought against it for not carrying out the court order on using central forces properly.

During the July 14 hearing, the bench of Chief Justice Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar sought an affidavit from the SEC in response to the contempt petitions.

Responding to the earlier directive, the SEC on Wednesday filed a report in the form of an affidavit in court to counter the charge of non-compliance as alleged by three Opposition leaders. In it, the SEC denied the charges and stated that the central forces were sent to sensitive and disturbed areas. It refuted charges of deploying civic volunteers on poll duty.

The SEC report claimed that although it sought 822 companies of central forces, it received only 637.

In response to another order issued earlier by the court, the IG BSF, appointed by the Centre to control and manage central forces in Bengal during rural polls, filed a 1,200 page report in court, alleging the SEC did not use central forces properly and the state police were uncooperative. The court handed it to the state government and the SEC and asked them to reply in the form of affidavits by August 14. The case will again be heard on August 17.