A voter today moved the Calcutta High Court seeking an interim order that the provisional state Election Commissioner appointed by West Bengal government should not take any decision on polling, repolling or counting of recently-held municipal elections.
Apparently under pressure from political parties, S R Upadhyay resigned on October 6 as SEC over violence during civic polls on October three, following which the state government appointed Principal Secretary, Transport, Alapan Bandopadhyay, as acting state Election Commissioner.
Appearing for petitioner Amitava Majumdar, a resident of BA Block in Bidhannagar, where civic election was held along with Asansol and Bally in Howrah, counsel S Pal submitted to the court of Justice Dipankar Dutta that as Bandopadhyay is a serving IAS officer and would go back to the government once a permanent SEC is appointed, it would not be possible for him to act with independence.
He prayed for an interim order that the provisional appointee should not take any decision on polling, repolling or any other decision on the constituencies that went for elections.
In his main plea, the petitioner challenged the constitutionality of the provision for appointing a serving government officer as provisional state Election Commissioner claiming that it would affect the independence and neutrality of SEC.
The matter was part heard today and would be taken up for hearing tomorrow again.
