Panchayat Polls: SC Rejects Bengal Govt's Plea Against Deployment Of Central Forces

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the West Bengal government's plea against the deployment of central forces during the panchayat polls.

The apex court further noted that holding elections cannot be a license to allow violence and considering that West Bengal has a history of such poll-related violence, and such deployment seems necessary.

The top court made the remarks while hearing a plea challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the panchayat elections.

A vacation bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Manoj Misra said the fact remains that the tenor of the high court order is ultimately to ensure free and fair elections in the state since it is conducting local body polls on a single day.

On June 15, the Calcutta high court directed the SEC to deploy central forces across West Bengal for the panchayat elections within 48 hours.

The court had noted that no appreciable steps had been taken ever since it passed an order on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the poll process.

The high court had directed the SEC to requisition central forces for deployment in all the districts of the state that were rocked by violence during filing of nominations for the July 8 panchayat elections.