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The Calcutta High Court today ordered the state of West Bengal to provide police protection to a woman who was allegedly attacked by a bunch of men on her way to cast her vote during the West Bengal municipal polls held on February 12.

The Court was hearing a bunch of petitions which alleged large scale violence and voter fraud during the elections.

 In light of the same, one of the petitioners represented by Sr. Adv. Ranjit Kumar made the following prayers for upcoming civic polls in 108 municipalities to be held on February 27:

• Deployment of central paramilitary forces 72 hours before the date of election,
• Use of effective and working CCTV cameras
• Appointment of impartial general observers and impartial micro observers
• Proper verification of ID cards of voters before entering polling booth
• Personal liability of SEC in terms of earlier order with regard to February 12 elections
• Cancellation of elections of February 12 and ensure of impartial general forthcoming elections

By an earlier order the Court had ordered SEC to decide on deployment of paramilitary forces on the February 12 elections.

The Court had further opined that if SEC decides not to deploy forces, then the Commissioner shall be personally responsible for free and fair elections.

Referring to the same,  Sr. Adv. Ranjit Kumar, submitted that faith on SEC has been belied.

Kumar submitted that the state took advantage of certain schemes "Duare Sarkar and Paraye Samadhan" which were notified after declaration of elections, which is in violation of the Model Code of Conduct. He further submitted that during February 12 elections, incidents of violence had taken place, and that the candidates of the petitioners' political party could not file nominations. 

Further, Adv. Sabyasachi Chatterjee representing another petitioner submitted that during the February 12 election, his client was attacked by a bunch of men which resulted in her finger getting fractured. He prayed for police protection for her.

Per contra, Adv. Jayanta Mitra, representing SEC submitted that only stray incidents of violence have taken place and that there are conflicting news reports evidenced by large scale voter turnout. 

Further, AG S.N. Mukherjee representing the state submitted that prompt actions were taken when complaints were filed. He also submitted that police took action based on TV reports and did not wait for formal complaints. Further, he alleged that false representations stating the same have not been recorded in the prayer. 

Taking note of the above the High Court bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj ordered the SEC and state to file an affidavit in reply before the next date of hearing. The bench also ordered immediate police protection of the woman who was attacked and directed for her statement under Section 164 to be recorded. It further ordered SEC to preserved CCTV footage and other documents.

The matter is to be heard next on February 21, 2022. 

Cause Title: Mousumi Roy vs SEC; Pratap Banerjee vs State