The Calcutta High Court in the case Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray observed wherein the plea is moved by the candidates for the West Bengal Panchayat Elections 2023, against a Returning Officer from Howrah district.
The single judge bench asked the direction asking the Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI probe into allegations of tampering of nomination papers.
In the present case, the single-judge order was challenged by the District Magistrate of Howrah and other Election Officers, wherein the bench directed the CBI to probe into allegations of corruption levelled by the candidates for tampering with the nomination papers of aspiring candidates belonging to opposition parties. It was also alleged in the case that during the scrutiny process their nomination had been blocked due to lack of caste certificates, in spite of the respondents having submitted the same at the time of filing nominations.
The Division bench comprising of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray in the case observed and stated that since both the parties have arguable cases, wherein it requires its careful consideration, the CBI shall not take any steps in terms of the impugned order
till June 26, 2023.
The counsel, Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay, representing the appellants submitted before the court that the CBI inquiry cannot be ordered for the mere asking and just because some allegations are made against the Officers in the Administration, the premier investigating agency of the country cannot be directed in order to conduct an inquiry. Therefore, any or every administrative lapse cannot be subjected
to CBI enquiry.
Earlier, another single-bench headed by Justice Amrita Sinha observed and has also passed an order wherein it directed the CBI probe into incidents of violence and corruption taking place at the nomination stage for the Panchayat Elections.
The bench of Justice Sinha observed and has noted that no much violence? The polls needs to be stopped if the bloodbath continues.
The counsel, Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv, Mr. Sirsanya Bandopadhyay, Mr. Shamim Ul Bari, Mr. Arka Kumar Nag. Appeared for the appellants.
The counsel, Mr. Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, Sr. Adv, Mr. Srijib Chakraborty, Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Mr. Sandipan Das, Mr. Sayon Banerjee, Mr. Badrul Karim, Mr. Kiron Sk. Mr. Dipankar Das represented the respondent.
The counsel, Mr. Kishore Dutta, Sr. Adv, Ms. Sonal Sinha, Mr. Sujit Gupta, Mr. Sayak Dutta, Mr. Soumen Chatterjee appeared for SEC.