SC dismisses pleas challenging Calcutta HC order on deployment of central forces in West Bengal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed pleas challenging a Calcutta High Court order directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the upcoming panchayat elections.

A vacation bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Manoj Misra said the fact remains that the tenor of the high court order is ultimately to ensure free and fair elections in the state since it is conducting local body polls on a single day.

The high court had on June 15 directed the SEC to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the panchayat elections within 48 hours.

The court had noted that no appreciable steps had been taken ever since it passed an order on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the poll process.

The high court had directed the SEC to requisition central forces for deployment in all the districts of the state that were rocked by violence during filing of nominations for the July 8 panchayat elections.