On Saturday, the Supreme Court stated that no further order was necessary on the TMC's plea challenging the Calcutta High Court's dismissal of its petition against an Election Commission circular on the deployment of central government personnel for vote counting in West Bengal.
Special Bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi stated that the Election Commission (EC) can choose counting personnel and its April 13 circular cannot be said to be incorrect.
EC submitted that the circular is very clear that there will be a mix of central and state government employees and the apprehension of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of any wrongdoing is misplaced.
The EC assured the Apex Court that the circular would be implemented in letter and spirit.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the TMC, said the circular was dated April 13, but they came to know about it on April 29.
SC Bench, which held a special sitting, said that the EC can choose counting personnel from only one pool, that is from the central government, and its circular cannot be said to be incorrect.
Senior advocate D S Naidu, appearing for the EC, submitted that the returning officer is a state government employee with overarching power to deploy personnel from any pool of government employees.
The counting of votes will be taken up on May 4.
On April 30, the Calcutta High Court dismissed the TMC's petition against the EC circular, saying there was no illegality in the poll panel's decision to appoint counting supervisors and assistants from central government and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) employees, instead of the state government staff.
Source PTI
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