SC no to PIL to countermand polls to 35 Lok Sabha WB seats

New Delhi, Apr 18(UNI) The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Election Commission (EC) to countermand elections to 35 Lok Sabha seats held in West Bengal in 2004 on the basis of reports sent to the EC by Chief Electoral Officer(CEO) Afzal Amanullah alleging large-scale rigging by ruling party workers on the polling day.

A bench headed by Mrs. Justice Ruma Pal yesterday allowed the petitioners to withdraw their petition and dismissed it as withdrawn.

The Court told the petitioners to seek information and copies of reports sent by the election observers and Amanullah along with the Action Taken Report(ATR) under the Right to Information Act.

The petitioner had not filed copies of reports as the same were not available.

The petitioners namely Manu Bhai Shah, Bhaskar Rao and Dinesh Trivedi, all running NGOs, had alleged that election observers had sent 200 reports while CEO Amanullah had sent 87 reports along with final report in May 2005. The petitioners had also sought directions from the court to the respondents to publish all the abovementioned reports of poll observers and those of the CEO along with ATR. The reports carried serious allegations of booth capturing, corrupt practices and rigging by the CPM workers.

UNI AKS/SC RP DS1645