The Kolkata civic polls can proceed without an immediate legal stay after the Calcutta High Court declined to grant interim relief in a petition challenging the delimitation of wards in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). The case itself remains pending, with the court directing the state government and petitioners to file affidavits before the matter is heard again.
Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya rejected the plea for interim intervention during Thursday’s hearing but did not dismiss the petition. The state government has been given three weeks to file an affidavit on the maintainability of the case, while the petitioners will have four weeks to respond. The matter is expected to be heard again after six weeks.
The petitioners have challenged the process used to delimit KMC wards. Their counsel, advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, told the court that the process was irrational and alleged that the municipal administrator did not have the legal authority to initiate steps relating to delimitation. He said the petition was filed after the decision was made public.
During the hearing, Justice Bhattacharyya questioned why the petitioners had approached the court at a late stage, after the delimitation process had already been underway for a considerable period. The judge also sought clarity on whether specific rules governed the manner in which the KMC commissioner forwarded the ward delimitation proposal.
Because the court did not impose an interim stay, election authorities can continue preparations according to the proposed schedule. The legal challenge, however, means that the validity and procedure of the delimitation exercise remain before the court and could be examined at a later stage.
Preparations for the civic election are already under way across the corporation’s 209 wards. The polls are expected to require 4,711 polling booths and approximately 22,600 polling personnel, according to the report. The State Election Commission is scheduled to begin training polling personnel from November 3.
The scale of the preparations highlights the administrative work involved in conducting a municipal election in a large urban corporation. Polling-station planning, deployment and training of personnel, and the allocation of electronic voting machines must proceed while the court case remains unresolved.
According to sources cited in the report, the electronic voting machines to be used in the civic polls will not have a None of the Above option. The report did not provide further details on the election notification or the final polling date.
The immediate next step in the legal proceedings is the filing of the state government’s affidavit on maintainability within three weeks, followed by the petitioners’ response within four weeks. The High Court is expected to take up the matter again after six weeks.
