HC slams Bengal on security lapse
In another setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Calcutta HC on Friday asked it to explain why it failed to execute the court order to provide adequate security to panchayat election candidates and stop the terror of motorcycle brigade of the Trinamul Congress workers.
The court asked the chief secretary and home secretary to file an affidavit by Monday explaining the government’s failure.
Justice Sanjib Banerjee said that he could even initiate contempt of court proceedings against top bureaucrats. On July 10, after hearing the petitions of some Congress and CPI(M) candidates, Justice Banerjee had ordered the state government to provide adequate security to the candidates so that they could campaign peacefully and without any obstruction.
Since the petitioners had specifically complained that bike-borne armed Trinamul Congress supporters were organising rallies in the villages sparking terror among Opposition candidates and workers, the court had asked the government to execute the ban order imposed by the SEC on the bike-brigade.
On July 10, making light of the ban order, panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee had said that ban would be there and so would be the bike rallies till the rural polls. On Friday, lawyer of the state election commission L.C. Behani complained to the court that the state government did not implement its order.
In his reply, state lawyer Ashok Banerjee denied the charge and claimed that the SEC’s lawyer was trying to mislead the court.
He also submitted a letter which was a report on the measures the government had taken on deployment of police during the polling as per the Supreme Court and HC orders. Justice Banerjee wanted to know what measures had the government taken for the security of the candidates in the run-up to the polls as per the HC order. The government lawyer sought time to reply.
The court then summoned state advocate-general Bimal Chatterjee at short notice.
At around 2 pm, when Mr Chatterjee came to the court, Justice Banerjee asked him why the state government did not keep the commitment which he had given on July 10.
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