Poll panel moves court to reject panchayat schedule

The Election Commission in West Bengal today moved the Calcutta Hight Court seeking rejection of the government notification on poll schedule as the state government decided to contest it.
The State Election Commission in its petition claimed that Section 42 of the West Bengal Panchayat Election Act, which states that the state government is empowered to notify election in consultation with the commission, is unconstitutional.
The commission also prayed that it be allowed to seek and deploy as many number of paramilitary and other central forces as it may feel necessary for holding of the panchayat poll.
Justice Biswanath Somadder, before whose court the matter was brought up, directed the commission's counsel L C Bihani to get the matter listed for hearing.

The petition, which was filed today, is likely to be listed for hearing tomorrow.
State panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee told reporters that the government would contest the SEC petition.

"We are contesting the petition filed by the State Election Commission on legal points and allied issues," state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said after holding a series of meetings with his officials, Advocate General Bimal Chatterjee and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Trinamool Congress government and the Election Commission have been at loggerheads over the schedule of the upcoming panchayat polls, with the government announcing that these will be held in two phases and that too under the supervision of the state police.

The state government announced recently that the elections will be held on April 26 and 30.
The Commission had earlier proposed that the panchayat polls be held in three phases and central forces be deployed for the sake of free and fair elections. It also wrote an 11-page letter to the state government explaining why the poll schedule wasn't acceptable to it.