WB SEC asks for quashing of panchayat poll notification

The West Bengal State Election Commission today appealed the Calcutta High Court to quash the notification made by the state government for holding the panchayat elections.
Claiming that there was no consultation by the state government as per statute of Section 42 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, the SEC's counsel Samaraditya Pal prayed before Justice Biswanath Somadder for direction to the state to make a new notification of dates after holding satisfactory consultations with the commission.
The section provided that the state government would notify panchayat elections in consultation with the SEC.
Pal claimed that the due process was not followed as the state had not responded to letters and issues raised by the SEC on several occasions or gave cursory response.

He submitted that consultation meant that whatever information each side had would be shared and issues like security, appointment of observers and funding be resolved before the state notified the dates for holding the elections in consonance with the SEC.
Pal claimed that there were four outstanding issues -- infrastructure and logistics, police forces including central paramilitary forces, observers and funding -- which needed to be resolved through consultation.

The SEC counsel claimed that the state had only provided Rs 100 crore so far, though it sought Rs 209 crore for conducting the elections.
The state government had announced the dates for panchayat elections on April 26 and April 30.

Claiming that the state had announced the dates unilaterally without proper consultations with it, the SEC had moved the high court.
During hearing of the case, the state had announced fresh dates for the elections on May 5 and 8.