The Division Bench of Chief Justice (CJ) TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, Calcutta High Court yesterday heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Urgen Lama of Kurserong, through his lawyer Anand Bhandari and associates.
The PIL was directed against non-holding of municipal elections to three Hill municipalities of Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik for more than two years since the term of the last elected Board of Councillors expired in April 2022, without assigning any reason for such “inaction”.
The petitioner submitted that the process for holding elections was initiated in 2022 but was abruptly stopped for reasons best known to the state.
Initially the court was heard complaining that elections to other bodies, panchayats, cooperative societies and even student union councils had not been held in the state. They almost sounded helpless, against the non-compliance of their orders by the WB State administration.
Anand Bhandari the lawyer for the petitioner, drew the attention of the High Court (HC) to the SC judgement in Kishan Singh Tomar vs Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad [case no: Appeal (civil) 5756 of 2005, where the appellant had filed a Writ of Mandamus to direct the Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad and Gujarat State Election Commission to take necessary steps for holding elections for constituting the municipal corporation before the expiry of its duration.
The Bench of CJ Sivagnanam observed, the grievance expressed by the petitioner is fully justified and there can be no quarrel with the legal position that elections need to be conducted as per constitutional mandate.
The bench also observed that the Supreme Court, while dealing with the appeal in the mentioned case, took note of Article 243U of the Constitution which deals with duration of municipalities.
The Supreme Court judgment reads, “… for the independent and effective functioning of the State Election Commission, where it feels that it is not receiving the cooperation of the concerned State Government in discharging its constitutional obligation of holding the elections to the Panchayats or Municipalities within the time mandated in the Constitution, it will be open to the State Election Commission to approach the High Courts, in the first instance, and thereafter the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus or such other appropriate writ directing the concerned State Government to provide all necessary cooperation and assistance to the State Election Commission to enable the latter to fulfill the constitutional mandate.”
HC observed: “Despite the constitutional mandate and the observation of the Supreme Court, we find that the State of West Bengal has not taken any action to hold elections and form Board of Councillors for Kurseong and Kalimpong municipalities, and Mirik notified area.”
The court directed the Principal Secretary of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department to consider the representation of the petitioner and “take a proper and legal decision bearing in mind constitutional mandate and the Supreme Court decision”.
“It is high time the state notifies the election to be conducted. The directions shall be complied with within six weeks from the date of order. The authority should also take note of the mandate under the relevant provisions of the West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993,” the court ordered.
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