SC Dismisses Plea For Conduct of "Free & Fair" Elections In West Bengal As Well As Protection of Opposition Party Workers & Leaders

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking for directions to the Centre, West Bengal government and Election Commission to ensure free and fair elections in the elections scheduled to be held this year in West Bengal. A Bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Hemant Gupta and R. Subhash Reddy refused to entertain the plea and directed the Petitioner to take "other remedies available under the law". Justice Bhushan further observed the Petitioner that it was an Article 32 petition and the fundamental rights of Petitioner in the instant matter had not been violated, and neither was she from West Bengal. The plea, by Advocate Vineet Dhanda filed on behalf of Advocate Puneet Kaur Dhanda, sought for issuance of directions to the Election Commission of India (EC) to submit a detailed report regarding bogus voters in the State of West Bengal and also to direct the EC to take appropriate action in removal of "bogus voters" from the voters list. It was further contended that Hindus were not allowed to vote and the votes were casted on their behalf by bogus voters. "There are districts like Murshidabad, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Birbhum, South 24 Pargana, Nadia, Haora, Koch Bihar, North 24 Pargana, Dakshin Dinajpur, Kolkata where Muslim population is in majority and obstruction is made by the Muslim voters when Hindu voters move out to cast their votes," it adds. The plea also made references to killing of leaders of opposition party as well as the workers and requested that the CBI be issued directions to conduct a detailed investigation in the cases involving deaths of opposition party workers and leaders. "In the past few years there have been incidents of systematic killings of political leaders including women especially belonging to BJP and leaders associated to the political party. The ruling party TMC (Trinamool Congress) has not done anything to stop the brutal violence against the leaders of political parties especially BJP and other political parties who are not in power in the State. There have been incidents at various parts of the State of West Bengal where the political leaders other than the ruling party have been systematically targeted with physical violence for vested reasons and the State Government has kept quiet on the violence against the political leaders especially BJP as it is only BJP which is seen as a threat by the ruling party mainly because of rising popularity of the BJP party in the State of West Bengal," the plea states. In this context, it prayed, "Issue appropriate writ or direction to the Director, CBI to conduct a detailed investigation in the cases involving killings of opposition party workers and leaders in the state of West Bengal if the report submitted by DGP, West Bengal not found satisfactory to this Hon'ble Court".It was also stated that as the continuous violation of fundamental rights, statutory rights and human rights in the State of West Bengal has reached its zenith and, the State government and its police machinery was involved in such violations, no steps to prevent such violation of fundamental, statutory and human rights were being taken by the State government. Rather it was the State government and its machinery which was responsible for such brutal violation of rights in the State of West Bengal. The PIL had also sought that the Union of India ensure safety of party workers belonging to opposition parties in the as well as submit a detailed report regarding action taken viz. case status in killings of opposition party leaders, especially for those belonging to BJP.Additionally, it was prayed that in case there is any dereliction of duty by senior officers in protection of BJP Party president who was attacked in West Bengal in the state, strict action should be taken against them. "The ruling party TMC has been using its administrative might to prevent action against those killers as no seriousness has been shown by the State Government in preventing the systematic killings of the political leaders. The police administration has become helpless at the instructions of the government as a result of which killings of opposition political party leaders is rising in the State and the State government is showing zero concerns over the lawlessness rising in the State."The Petitioner further referred to the alleged attacks on vehicles of BJP leaders JP Nadda and Kailash Vijayvargiya's in Bengal as the two leaders were on their way to Diamond Harbour in December 2020 to meet party workers for the Bengal elections in 2021. It was reported as the convoys of JP Nadda and Vijayvargiya were headed towards Diamond Harbour on December 10, protesters gathered on the streets and attempted to block the road to stop Nadda's convoy from passing. In this context, the plea sought for directions for a free, peaceful and safe election in the State

SC Dismisses Plea For Conduct of "Free & Fair" Elections In West Bengal As Well As Protection of Opposition Party Workers & Leaders

Radhika Roy

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