Calcutta HC bars Bengal SEC from announcing KMC poll schedule till ward delimitation case verdict

Kolkata, Nov 4 (IANS) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court said on Wednesday barred the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) for announcing the schedule for the forthcoming polls for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) till the time the court pronounces the judgment in the case, challenging the delimitation of wards in Kolkata civic body is announced.

The polling for seven urban civic bodies in West Bengal, including KMC and Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC), is likely to take place in the last week of December, and the results are expected to be announced in the first week of January next year.

Before that the delimitation of the wards in KMC had been announced, increasing the number of wards to 209 from the previous figure of 144.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the delimitation process.

In the petition filed by CPI-M leader and former party Councillor Dipu Das, she claimed that despite some serious objections to the new ward delimitation being raised and a proposal was mooted for a ‘spot visit’ and a public hearing in the area to get the opinions of the citizens, no importance was given to those objections and proposals.

The petitioner also claimed that several aspects, including the population and geographical location of the wards, were not properly considered in the delimitation exercise.

She even claimed that this move was made to give benefits to a specific party.

Initially, the matter was heard at the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya.

However, instead of passing any specific order in the matter, Justice Bhattacharya directed all parties concerned to file affidavits in the matter.

Thereafter, the petitioner approached the division bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Justice Arjun Roy challenging the order of the single-judge bench.

The petitioner contended that if the WBSEC would announce the schedule of the KMC before a clear judgment in the matter, her petition would not have any relevance.

The matter came up for hearing at the division bench on Wednesday. At the end of the hearing, that division bench said that the WBSEC should not announce the schedule of the KMC polls till the court pronounced its verdict in the matter.

–IANS

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