Shivangi Prakash-
Published On: September 28, 2021 at 14:25 IST
The Calcutta High Court’s Division Bench on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Bypoll timetable for the Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency, which is set to take place on Thursday.
The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, on the other hand, took issue with a letter from the West Bengal Chief Secretary to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The order of the Bench said, “As the process of election was initiated with the issuance of press note dated September 04, 2021 and the polling has to be held on September 30, 2021 we do not find it appropriate to interfere with the decision of the Commission to hold Bypolls to Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency at this stage.”
The Court recorded, “Strong reservation about the conduct of the Chief Secretary in writing a letter to the Election Commission stating that there would be ‘constitutional crisis’ in case Bypolls to the Bhabanipur Constituency is not held”.
“He is a public servant, who is to discharge his duties in terms of provisions of law, whosoever may be in power. He is not to ensure that any particular person should come in power and in the absence there would be ‘constitutional crisis’,” the Court further added.
The Court’s decision on Tuesday cleared the path for the Bhabanipur Bypoll Elections to be held on Thursday as planned. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, is running for the seat against Priyanka Tibrewal of the BJP and Srijib Biswas of the Left Front.
A Writ Petition was filed in Court to quash the ECI’s notification of the Bypolls held on September 4.
The Court also observed, “Record any finding on the issue that an election petition may or may not be maintainable after the result of the Assembly election is declared. Any of the losing party shall have the right to avail of his/her appropriate remedy to challenge the election on the grounds available in law”.
Click here to read/download order
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