Calcutta : The Calcutta High Court refused to reschedule the Bhabanipur by-polls on Tuesday. Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal dismissed the petition questioning the Election Commission’s contention of a “constitutional exigency” for holding the bypolls to Bhabanipur assembly seat. The elections will be held on Thursday.
On September 24 the court had reserved it’s judgement after hearing both the sides of matter. The petitioner had sought the court’s intervention as the EC had gone ahead to hold the election in the particular constituency “considering the constitutional exigency and special request from the State of West Bengal”.
The HC does not find it appropriate to interfere with the decision of Election Commission. The High Court said, “As the process of election was initiated with the issuance of a press note dated September 4, 2021, and the polling has to be held on September 30, 2021, we do not find it appropriate to interfere with the decision of the EC to hold by-election to Bhabanipur assembly constituency at this stage.”
The election was necessary as Mamata Banerjee needed to win an Assembly seat to be on board as she had lost to Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in the May election even as her party romped back to power.
The court has recorded strong remarks about the conduct of the Chief Secretary’s letter to Election Commission. The letter stated, that there would be ‘constitutional crisis’ in case byelection to the Bhabanipur constituency is not held.’
“He is a public servant, who is to discharge his duties in terms of provisions of law, whosoever may be in power. He is not to ensure that any particular person should come in power and in the absence there would be ‘constitutional crisis’,” the court further added.
The court has passed an order on the PIL filed by Sayan Banerjee. The petitioner asserted that the Election Commission in a press note had said that it had decided to hold bypoll in Bhabanipur constituency “considering the constitutional exigency and special request from the state of West Bengal.”
Tuesday’s development in the court paved the way for holding the Bhabanipur Bypolls as per schedule on Thursday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting from the seat and is pitted against the BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal and the Left Front’s Srijib Biswas.
A writ petition was filed before the court to quash the notification issued by the ECI on September 4 for holding the byelection.
The court also observed it did not “record any finding on the issue that an election petition may or may not be maintainable after the result of the Assembly election is declared. Any of the losing party shall have the right to avail of his/her appropriate remedy to challenge the election on the grounds available in law”.
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