Panchayat poll results subject to court’s final orders: Calcutta HC

The Calcutta high court on Wednesday said that the final results of the West Bengal panchayat election will be subject to its final orders on a batch of petitions that ranged from seeking repolling in several booths to a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the poll-linked violence.

“When the court is seized of the matter, it goes without saying that whatever has been done thus far, that is for the conduct of the elections and the declaration of the results, will be subject to the ultimate orders that may be passed in these writ petitions,” a division bench of chief justice of the Calcutta high court TS Sivagnanam and justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya said. The court was hearing a series of petitions seeking quashing of several decisions of the state poll panel, repolling in several booths and a CBI probe into the large-scale violence on July 8 when the three-tier panchayat polls were held.

The court directed the state election commission (SEC) to inform the candidates who have been declared elected that the result might change depending on the court’s order.

“...inform [the candidates] that their declaration of having been elected is subject to further orders to be passed by this court in these writ petitions,” the bench said.