SC allows civic poll breather till June 30,West Bengal Civic poll, Kolkata Election, West Bengal Municipal Poll

SC allows civic poll breather till June 30

- Apex court records govt undertaking accepting poll panel primacy but doubt lingers because of lack of clarity
Our Bureau
May 25: The Supreme Court today allowed the postponement of polls to seven Bengal civic bodies till June 30 and recorded a state government undertaking accepting the primacy of the state election commission in electioneering.

But bureaucrats and advocates in Calcutta said later that the lack of "specifics" in the undertaking could leave the door ajar for future "friction" on the issue of primacy.

In the Supreme Court, a bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and U.U. Lalit directed the Bengal government to complete the process of converting the municipalities to corporations by June 30 and also allowed the poll panel to deploy central forces.
 
The seven civic bodies where elections would be held are Raniganj, Jamuria, Asansol and Kulti in Burdwan, Bidhananagar and Rajarhat-Gopalpur in North 24-Parganas and Bally in Howrah.

Although the conversion of the municipalities into corporations has been the government's official stand for the delay in the polls to the seven bodies, sources have said Trinamul wants to buy time following impressive performance by rival parties in these areas in the Lok Sabha polls last year.

The election commission today doubted if the polls would be held before November.

As the court gave the government time till June 30 to complete the conversion of the municipalities to corporations, the poll panel can start the delimitation and other processes only after that. Sources said the delimitation itself would take 10-12 weeks.

"When we told the court that we were ready to hold the polls by June 16, we were talking about the seven municipalities in their existing form. After the conversion, we will have to carry out the delimitation of these bodies, which would take 10-12 weeks," a poll panel official said.

Election commissioner S.R. Upadhaya said polls are usually not held during monsoon and in the Puja month.

"Given the ruling, the elections might not take place before November. We have to assess the ruling first," he added.

The apex court today overruled the commission's plea for conducting the polls by June 16, saying "no public purpose would be served if you conduct the elections by June 16".

"After two-three months or say six months later, when the amalgamation is completed, you will have to conduct fresh elections. It will be only a waste of money from the public exchequer," the bench said.

The apex court passed the directions on an appeal filed by the Bengal government against a Calcutta High Court ruling of April 16 that directed the state to complete the polls within two months.

Appearing for the Bengal government, senior lawyer and Congress leader Kapil Sibal submitted the undertaking that "the state accepted the primacy of the state election commission" in conducting elections.

"Yes, we have to accept the primacy of the commission. We accept it," Sibal told the bench after senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing on behalf of the commission, sought such an assurance.

Divan had told the court earlier: "I want such an assurance from the state because I do not want some other government in the state saying later that we don't accept the primacy of the commission."

The Trinamul-led government has been insisting that the commission has the role of a consultant to the government on deciding poll dates and the number of phases.

Despite the government undertaking on the primacy issue, some in the legal and bureaucratic fraternity in Calcutta foresaw problems.

"There were no specifics attached to the statement by the government counsel. The Constitution grants the commission primacy and that cannot be refuted. But the problematic sections of the state laws were not taken into consideration," said an IAS officer from the Bengal cadre.

The legislation in question is Section 8 of the West Bengal State Election Commission Act of 1994, which says that the state government shall, in consultation with the commission, fix the date or dates of elections. But according to Article 243K of the Constitution, the commission has the "superintendence, direction and control" of the entire election process.

Senior advocate Arunabha Ghosh said the Bengal government has been using this lack of clarity to interfere in matters such as dates and phases.

"The apex court today did not add value to the high court's April 16 ruling, which had also said that the commission had primacy without striking down the legal sections," Ghosh said.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said the judiciary needed to get to the root of the matter and strike down Section 8 of the West Bengal State Election Commission Act of 1994 as ultra vires of the Constitution, which would automatically eliminate similar provisions from the other two Acts.

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