Calcutta HC refuses to stay Bhabanipur bypolls

Kolkata, Sep 28: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to stay crucial Bhabanipur bypolls from where West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice R Bharadwaj said it was inappropriate on the part of the West Bengal chief secretary to have written such a letter in which he had appealed to the election commission for holding the by-election at Bhabanipur. The court dismissed the PIL in which the language used to seek the by-poll was challenged.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) claimed that the Election Commission in a statement had noted that it had decided to hold by-election to Bhabanipur constituency "considering the constitutional exigency and special request from state of West Bengal".

He pleaded the commission cannot be doing so, and as such the court should interfere into the issue.

"How can a chief secretary speak about 'constitutional crisis' in his letter to the commission? And how can the ECI take steps to hold elections on the basis of that letter? Why did the poll body decide to hold elections in just one seat?," the division bench had asked while reserving the case for today.

Election to Bhabanipur seat, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a contestant, is scheduled on September 30.

Bypoll to Bhabanipur was necessitated following the resignation of Trinamool Congress MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay to facilitate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's election to the assembly.

Banerjee lost in Nandigram, as per the results of the assembly election declared by the EC in May.

According to the constitutional provision, a person has to get elected within six months of taking oath as a chief minister or a minister. She took oath as chief minister for the third consecutive term on May 5.