TMC Moves Supreme Court Against HC Order on Central Staff Deployment at Bengal Counting Centers

NEW DELHI: The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday moved Supreme Court against the Calcutta high court's order rejecting the plea challenging deployment of only central government's staff at counting centers on May 4. The Mamata Banerjee's party had challenged the poll duty assigned to central government and PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) employees as supervisors in the vote counting. The high court told the TMC that appointing central or state officers as counting supervisors is the Election Commission's prerogative. It said that if central officers are found to have manipulated counting and favoured the BJP, the party can file an election petition. The matter has been listed for urgent hearing on Saturday before a Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi since counting of votes is scheduled to be held on May 4. Earlier, the court had asked why only central officers were being appointed, to which the EC replied that the same practice was followed in Kerala. Justice Krishna Rao, hearing the case, asked EC, "If there is an objection, can the Election Commission not adjudicate? Why are you not going for the state government?" The HC also pointed out that the statute allows the ECI to appoint employees from either the state government or central government and employees of PSUs for the role. EC counsel Dama Seshadri Naidu replied, "We have done that in Kerala. We have not singled out any state. As the situation demands, we do that." Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for the petitioner, questioned, "Do you disbelieve these state government employees? You have conducted the entire election with state government staff. Why are you adopting a discriminatory approach towards West Bengal? In all, 2,500 companies have been brought here. If even one company had been in Pahalgam, those 26 people would not have been killed." Justice Rao in his order said, "Section 100 of the Representation of the People Act provides that any noncompliance with the provisions of the Constitution of this Act or of any rules or orders made under this Act shall be grounds for declaring election to be void and thus, if the petitioner finds that during the counting, the central government employees who have been appointed as counting supervisor and counting assistants favoured the candidate of the BJP due to which the candidate of the petitioner defeated, the petitioner has the liberty to challenge the same in an election petition." The high court also said while dismissing the petition, "It is the prerogative of the office of the Election Commission of India to appoint the counting supervisor and counting assistant either from the state government or the central government. This court does not find any illegality for appointing counting supervisor and counting assistant from the central government / central PSU employee instead of state government employee." The high court also said, "Only the counting supervisor and the counting assistants will not be in the counting room. Micro observers, counting agents of the candidates who are contesting the election and counting personnel will also be in the counting room. Thus, it is impossible to believe the allegation made by the petitioner."