Calcutta HC rejects petition for multi-phased panchayat polls

Kolkata, July 5 The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday rejected a petition demanding multi-phased polls for the three- tier panchayat system in West Bengal.

Rejecting the petition filed by state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a division bench of Chief Justice T.S, Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya clearly said that the polls will be conducted in a single-phase as per schedule on July 8.

While passing the order, Justice Sivagnanam observed that since arrangements for central armed forces personnel has been ade according to directions of the court, there was no need to increase the phases.

“The court has already given a number of instructions to ensure free and fair polls and hence there is no necessity for further direction on this count,” Justice Sivagnanam observed.

While haring in the matter, Chowdhury’s counsel Mrityunjay Chattopadhyay argued that as pre-poll violence had already gripped the state, the available central forces might not able to often reach to the grassroots level of violence and hence there was a necessity of multi-phased polls.

However, his argument was rejected by the division bench.

Earlier, the lone All India Secular Front (AISF) representative in the state Assembly, Naushad Siddique had made a similar plea.

His application was also rejected.