SC stays polls to seven Bengal municipal bodies

The Supreme Court on Tuesday put on hold the elections to seven municipal bodies in West Bengal on the state government's plea as these bodies are being converted into municipal corporations.

A vacation bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit ordered the status quo as it issued notice to the Centre, West Bengal State Election Commission and a PIL petitioner Pronoy Roy after senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the court that the process of converting these bodies into municipal Corporations would be completed by June 15 and thereafter the elections can be held at any time.

The West Bengal government had moved the apex court challenging the Calcutta High Court's May 15 order by which it had asked the the state election commission to hold elections to seven local bodies by June 16.

The state government had approached the high court seeking the modification of the state election commission's election schedule for seven municipal bodies seeking some more time hold elections.

The seven civic bodies for which the state governments had sought the postponement of election are Asansol Municipal Corporation, Kulti Municipality, Raniganj Municipality, Jamuria Municipality, Bidhannagar Municipality, Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipal ity and Bally Municipality.

These are the municipal bodies for which the high court had in April directed the state election commission to complete the elections within two months.