Calcutta High Court dismisses the petition questioning Bhabanipur by-election

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice R Bharadwaj came down heavily on the Chief Secretary and said it was inappropriate on his part to have written such a letter in which he had appealed to the election commission for holding the by-election at Bhabanipur. The court passed the order in response to a public interest litigation.

Lashing out at Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi, the court observed in its verdict, “… the most offensive part is the conduct of the Chief Secretary, who projected himself to be more as a servant of the political party in power than a public servant, whereby he stated that there would be constitutional crisis in case election to Bhabanipur Constituency is not held from where respondent No. 5 (Mamata Banerjee) wants to contest election..”

The Chief Secretary, who has written a letter where he mentioned the “Constitutional crisis”, the court questioned, “What constitutional crisis the Government could face with one person losing or winning an election, was not explained. How did the Chief Secretary know that the respondent No. 5 (Mamata Baenrjee) was to contest election from Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency?”

“We have dismissed the petition. Election will be held. But we have commented on the conduct of the Chief Secretary. It was not appropriate for him to have written such a letter,” Acting Chief Justice Bindal said, while pronouncing the verdict.

“We have some specific observations about the Chief Secretary. He should not have done what he has done,” Court clearly observed the Chief Secretary and made critical observations about the Chief Secretary’s conduct.

“We record our strong reservation about the conduct of the Chief Secretary in writing a letter to the Election Commission stating that there would be ‘constitutional crisis’ in case by-election to the Bhabanipur Constituency is not held,” the Court made a mention in the verdict.

The chief secretary had in the letter said that a “constitutional crisis” would occur if the by-election to Bhabanipur was not held.

Banerjee had contested from the Nandigram seat in an apparent bid to challenge Suvendu Adhikari, who defected to the BJP ahead of the polls. Banerjee had lost to Adhikari by a margin of 1,956 votes, which necessitated a fresh polling.

The Court has also raised questions regarding the cost of the election and whether it was spent from the exchequer of the state. The bench will hear on November 9 the second issue whether the public should bear costs of by-elections, which was vacated due to the resignation of the elected candidate to facilitate the Banerjee’s election.

During hearing the case the court had earlier observed: “Some people contest elections and win and then they resign for various reasons. Now someone is resigning to give a chance to win from the seat again. Now who will bear the cost of this election? Why will tax-payers money be spent for this election?”