NEW DELHI: The Calcutta High Court told the State Election Commission to ensure that the number of central para military forces to be deployed for the July 8 three tier panchayat elections was not fewer than what was requisitioned in 2013 in the same polls.
In a stern warning to the State Election Commissioner, former chief secretary Rajiva Sinha, the High Court also said he should step down if he fails to carry out the order.
A division bench led by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam was hearing a contempt petition filed by the West Bengal's Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari. He accused the poll panel of failure to carry out the June 15 order asking the SEC to deploy central forces within 48 hours of the order.
After the development, the West Bengal government and the SEC filed separate pleas in the Supreme Court, which upheld the HC order, saying the conduct of polls can't be a licence to violence.
Subsequently, the SEC sought 22 companies of central forces for 22 districts during the single-phase poll.
The High Court said deploying one company for each of the 22 districts was inadequate and asked the poll panel to requisition adequate central forces within 24 hours.
"In the year 2013, when there were 17 districts, one lakh state police and 80,000 central forees were deployed. At present Bengal has 22 districts, SEC will have to consider it while seeking forces from the central government," the bench said.
In 2013, about 825 companies of central forces were deployed during the five-phase rural polls.
The bench pointed out that as the number of Bengal's voters and districts had risen since 2013, one company for each district was inadequate.
The court said it could not understand what happened to the independence of the state election commission which had approached the High Court and the Supreme Court seeking deployment of central forces in 2013-ahead of the 2023 election. The court said it had no hesitation in saying that previous orders were not complied with in letter and spirit, and hoped this one would be.
The court also cautioned that any attempt to make the order unworkable would have adverse consequences.
For the 2013 rural polls, the then State Election Commissioner Mira Pande sought 800 companies of central forces in view of ground realities.
