The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday warned that it would not allow voting in Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal which witnessed communal violence during the Ram Navami celebrations.
The observation by a Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam came during a hearing on the violence that took place in Murshidabad on April 17 during a Ram Navami procession.
“If people cannot enjoy and celebrate in peace, any festival, even for eight hours, we will recommend to the Election Commission of India not to hold parliamentary elections in such constituencies. If despite the Model Code of Conduct being invoked, two sets of people are fighting with each other, they do not have any right to vote for their representative,” Calcutta High Court said.
“If people can’t live in peace and harmony, we will say that the Election Commission can’t hold parliamentary elections in these districts. That’s the only way,” the Bench said.
“Despite the Model Code of Conduct being invoked, if two sets of people are fighting like this, they don’t deserve any elected representatives,” it added.
The court noted that similar processions took place in Kolkata on Ram Navami as well, but no violence was reported.
“In Kolkata also, there are 23 places where celebrations were held but no untoward incident happened. If this happens when the MCC is in place, what do the State police do? What are the Central forces doing? Both couldn’t contain the clashes,” the Bench noted.
The Bench asked the State counsel Amitesh Banerjee about how many people have been arrested in connection with the violence-related cases.
To this, the State counsel informed the court that the CID has now taken over the investigation.
The Bench replied: “We propose that we will make a recommendation to the Election Commission of India that people who can’t celebrate in peace should not be allowed to participate in elections.”
While the High Court did not issue any order on the deferment of elections on any seat, it said it would propose to the Election Commission that polls should be deferred in Baharampur, which falls under Murshidabad district.
The High Court also directed the State police to file a report on the communal clashes.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Kolkata area convenor Amiya Sarkar and the regional convenor of Muslim Rashtriya Mancha, West Bengal and Sikkim, S A Afzal, are the petitioners in the two PILs.
While the former prayed for NIA investigation, the latter sought both CBI and NIA probes into the incidents.
The court was informed by the lawyer of one of the petitioners that the first incident took place at Kamnagar under Beldanga police station on April 13 and the second one at Saktipur on April 17.
In the order, the Division Bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, directed the West Bengal Government to file a report on the next hearing date in the form of an affidavit.
The court granted liberty to State and Central investigating agencies to file their affidavits if they so desire.
“In the instant case we find a peculiar feature that both the writ petitioners have contended that in the past there has been no violence during Ram Navami festival and this is the first time such an incident has occurred,” the Bench said.
The next hearing will take place on Friday, April 26.