West Bengal Assembly elections 2026: Supreme Court to hear TMC’s plea challenging HC order on May 2

The Supreme Court on Saturday, May 2, will hear the petition filed by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) challenging the Calcutta High Court order that dismissed a plea against the directive of the Election Commission of India to deploy central government and PSU employees for counting the votes polled in the 2026 Assembly elections in West Bengal.

Voting for the 294-member West Bengal Assembly was held across two phases on April 23 and April 29, while the counting of votes is scheduled for May 4.

Advertisement

Earlier, the High court had dismissed the TMC’s plea stating that there was no illegality found in the Election Commission’s decision to appoint counting supervisors and assistants from central government as well as Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) employees, instead of the state government staff, PTI reported.

According to ANI, the top court has constituted a special bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi to hear the plea at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Notably, the TMC had challenged the April 30 order issued by the additional chief electoral officer of West Bengal, which stated that at least one of the counting supervisors or assistants at each table should be a central government or PSU employee.

During the hearing on the matter, the TMC’s counsel argued that the communication was issued by the poll panel’s official without jurisdiction and was based on mere apprehension.

However, the counsel for the Election Commission said that the Representation of the People Act, 1951, allows delegation of the commission’s functions, further claiming that the directive was valid.

Further, it was submitted that the communication was issued on April 13, while TMC filed the plea on April 30, close to the counting date. They alleged that the move was intended to stall the process.

The High Court did not agree with TMC’s allegations that its main opponent in West Bengal – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – controls the employees of the central government or PSUs.