Why should the public bear the cost of the by-election, the Calcutta High Court asked the Election Commission. Kolkata News – Times of India

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday sought to know from the Election Commission why the public should bear the cost of the bypolls.
“After the election, someone vacates the office for someone else to contest the election. Why should the public bear the cost? Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal said while hearing a petition challenging the Election Commission’s decision to give priority to the Bhawanipur Assembly bypoll due to “constitutional necessity”. The court reserved the verdict on Friday.
The observation came six days before the Bhawanipur bypoll on September 30, in which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is the candidate. The seat fell vacant after poll-winning Trinamool MLA Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from the Bengal Assembly so that Banerjee could contest from there after losing the Nandigram election.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj declined to take cognizance of the Election Commission’s “short affidavit” to clarify the term “constitutional requirement” mentioned in its September 4 press release on the Bhawanipur by-election.
On Thursday, the court had allowed the Election Commission to clarify paragraphs 6 and 7 of its press release, which referred to a “constitutional requirement” and a “special request” from the state to conduct the Bhawanipur bypoll within six months. Was also.
The bench came down heavily on the poll panel for filing a shoddy affidavit, which did not address specific points in the matter. Petitioner Sayan Banerjee had challenged the EC’s contention of a “constitutional necessity” and a “constitutional crisis and void” plea by Bengal Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi in his letter to the election panel making a “special request”.
The bench said that the affidavit does not mention whether the Election Commission has the power to act on the representation of the Chief Secretary on the “constitutional crisis” to come if the by-elections are not held.
“What is the role of the Chief Secretary being able to say that there will be a constitutional crisis if the Chief Minister is not elected within six months?” Justice Bindal observed.
EC’s counsel Siddhant Kumar said it was a “persistent practice” of the EC to act on representations made by political parties and constitutional dignitaries. Kumar cited instances in which the Election Commission took note of a governor’s opinion.
The acting Chief Justice said, “So now you are comparing the role of the Governor to that of the Chief Secretary.”