Howrah’s ward delimitation process has been challenged in the Calcutta High Court, weeks after the West Bengal Assembly passed a bill increasing the number of Howrah Municipal Corporation wards from 50 to 68. The petitioner has alleged that the reorganisation was not carried out in accordance with the prescribed rules.
The case was filed by Imtiaz Ahmed, a former councillor and former mayor-in-council member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who was also a candidate from the Central Howrah constituency in the Assembly election, according to a report by Anandabazar. The petition argues that the process of redrawing the municipal wards could lead to legal complications similar to those arising from the reorganisation of Kolkata’s municipal wards.
The matter may come up for hearing before Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya on Tuesday, the report said. The immediate question before the court is whether the ward reorganisation process followed the statutory requirements governing the creation and restructuring of municipal constituencies.
The dispute comes against the backdrop of a wider legal challenge involving elections to the Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporations. The Calcutta High Court has issued an interim stay concerning the elections to the two civic bodies, according to the report. The state government has said it will challenge that order in the Supreme Court and has also discussed appointing coordinators to run the two municipal corporations during the intervening period.
The Kolkata case concerns a proposed increase in the number of wards from 144 to 209. A division bench of the High Court, comprising Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Arjun Ray Mukherjee, said on November 6 that the State Election Commission could not announce an election schedule until the litigation over Kolkata’s ward delimitation was resolved. The bench also said that an election timetable could not be issued on the basis of a notification published on September 11 concerning the ward reorganisation.
The division bench directed the single bench hearing the delimitation matter to dispose of the case. A further hearing in that matter is scheduled after four weeks, the report said. The legal challenge over Howrah now adds another proceeding to the uncertainty surrounding the municipal election process in the two major urban corporations.
Ward delimitation determines the boundaries and number of municipal constituencies through which residents elect their local representatives. Any dispute over the process can affect the election timetable, the structure of civic representation and the administrative transition between elected councils and interim arrangements. The next significant development will be the High Court’s consideration of the petition challenging Howrah’s proposed 68-ward structure.
