Calcutta HC refuses to interfere in Bengal panchayat election process

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to interfere in the West Bengal panchayat election process at this stage, which is to be held by May, while holding that there is substance in petitioner Suvendu Adhikaris contention over seat reservation criteria used for the upcoming rural polls.

Passing judgement on a PIL by the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, a division bench presided by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava said that any interference at this stage in connection with the petition may lead to postponement of the panchayat elections in the state.

Disposing of the petition, the court declined to interfere at this stage, while holding that there is substance in the argument of the petitioners counsel on the reservation of seats for other backward classes (OBC), scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST).

The bench, also comprising Justice R Bharadwaj, left it open to the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) to consider the effect of the anomaly in arriving at proportion of SC/ST/OBC population on the basis of the population of SC/ST arrived at by adding decadal growth of 7.5 per cent in census figure of 2011 and calculation of population of OBC on the basis of household survey in August, 2022.  “The Election Commission is expected to ensure that the object of the proviso to Sub-section 2 of Section 4 of West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973, the provisions of Sub-section 2A of Section 17 of the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act, 2003 and proviso to Explanation II of Rule 22 of the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Rules, 2006 is not defeated,” the bench directed.

The counsel for the petitioner had submitted that as per Section 4 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973, and Section 17 of the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act, 2003 and Rule 22 of the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Rules, 2006, reservation of seats for SC/ST and OBC in a gram (village) panchayat should bear the same proportion to the total number of seats in that gram panchayat to be filled up by election.  He further submitted that the decision of the state to arrive at the figure of population of SC/ST on the basis of census figure of 2011 by adding the decadal growth of 7.5 per cent and arriving at the figure of population of Backward Classes on the basis of survey in 2022 is defective as two different yardsticks cannot be adopted for ascertaining the proportion of population of SC/ST and OBC.  He stated that for SC/ST population, estimated figure of 2021 are considered whereas for OBC, population figures of 2022 are taken into account which itself is defective and will lead to incorrect results as numerator and denominator should be ascertained by adopting the same formula and for the same year.   The SEC had, vide notifications dated July 29, 2022 and August 2, 2022, issued various directives to compute the population of the other backward classes for the upcoming panchayat elections.

Adhikari had filed the PIL before the high court on December 2 after the SEC rejected a representation by him in this regard.     Counsel for the SEC had submitted before the court that panchayat elections in the state are imminent as the term of the gram panchayats are expiring in May, 2023 and as such, no interference at this stage is required.  He further submitted that delimitation of constituencies is done every ten years and reservation is done every five years and so, for this election, both delimitation and reservation were required to be done.  He stated that since the census figure of population of backward classes is not available, the same has been ascertained by conducting surveys and since the census population figure of SC/ST is available in census 2011, their population has been arrived at by adding 7.5 per cent decadal growth.

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