The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the panchayat elections in West Bengal, rejecting a plea filed by…
Supreme Court of India (Photo: IANS/File)
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the panchayat elections in West Bengal, rejecting a plea filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party for rescheduling polls and deploying paramilitary forces.
The top court also refused to extend the last date for the filing of nominations for panchayat polls, asserting that it could not interfere with the election process.
A bench of Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, however, granted liberty to the aggrieved candidates to approach the state Election Commission.
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“We have not interfered with the election process but we have granted liberty to all candidates to approach State Election Commission today itself for necessary relief,” a bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre said.
The West Bengal unit of the BJP on March 6 had approached the apex court seeking the deployment of paramilitary forces alleging that its candidates were being blocked from filing their nomination papers by the Block Development Officers (BDOs) and were being targeted by the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress.
The BJP had told the court that “democracy is being murdered” in West Bengal as the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) was engaged in large scale poll violence.
They sought the availability of nomination papers online, extension of the last date for filing these papers and deployment of paramilitary forces in the state in the run-up to the polls scheduled in the first week of May.
The panchayat polls are scheduled to be held on May 1, 3, and 5. The votes will be counted on May 8. According to the notification, the last date for filing of nominations is April 9 and the last date of scrutiny of the nominations is April 11.
(With inputs from agencies)
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