It was calculator time in Calcutta High Court

There were unusual scenes in the Calcutta High Court Tuesday as the chief justice and his colleague and the rival counsel of the West Bengal government and the State Election Commission frantically used calculators to ascertain the number of security personnel needed for the panchayat polls.

As Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi got busy with the mathematical exercise, the latter said it was "certainly" not the court's job.

"Do you think this is the court's job" to physically calculate? asked Justice Bagchi.

"This is certainly not the court's job," said Justice Bagchi.

Saying it would have been happy had it not taken part in such an exercise, the court commented that the two parties seemed to be at "loggerheads" with one another.

"There are problems and problems and problems " the court observed.

The division bench has been hearing the matter since the second week of last month and gave two specific orders on conducting the polls.

The court observed it was not the best way to hold the polls, but it was trying to zero in on the "best among the worst" choices before it.

"Taking the matters to the court is the worst situation," the court said, hearing the contention of the rival counsel on a petition moved by the State Election Commission seeking deployment of adequate security forces for the polls.

At one stage, the court provided calculators to both the counsel so that they could decide the phase wise details on the amount of security forces needed and available.

The court also tried to match whether the figures ascertained by it tallied with those of the election panel and the state government.