Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea Of WB BJP Leaders Seeking Deployment Of Central Forces In Civic Polls
The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea of BJP leaders against the Calcutta High Court directing the State Election Commissioner to examine the ground situation in each of the 108 West Bengal municipalities going to polls on February 27, and take a decision on deployment of central paramilitary forces.
A Bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant told Senior Advocate P S Patwalia, appearing for BJP leaders Mousumi Roy and Pratap Banerjee, "Sorry. We are not inclined to entertain this petition".
Patwalia said that wide-scale violence and irregularities were reported during previous phases of municipal elections and deployment of central forces will help in ensuring free and fair elections.
He said the High Court had erred in asking the State Election Commissioner to examine the ground situation and take a call on the deployment of central forces.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Central Government pointed out before the Court that in the cases relating to election-related violence in Tripura, the Court had asked the Center if it can do something. He informed that Court the Center has no problem in deploying forces.
The Court was, however, not inclined to pass any order and dismissed the petition.
With PTI inputs
