Calcutta HC declines urgent hearing on Bhowanipore bypoll PIL – Times of India

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court has declined to hear on an urgent basis a PIL challenging the “constitutional exigency” of holding the Bhowanipore assembly bypoll based on the chief secretary’s letter to the Election Commission (EC). The court will hear it on September 20.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj on Monday asked the petitioner’s counsel Bikash Bhattacharya why he moved court so many days after the EC notification on September 4. Bhattacharya submitted that the PIL was filed on September 5.
Advocate general Kishore Dutta said that the election process was already under way and no court could interfere with it. He pointed out that holding of elections was the sole prerogative of the EC. “The chief secretary wrote to the EC to avoid a vacuum in the state,” he said.
Bhattacharya contested the claim, saying that there was no “constitutional exigency” other than “personal exigency” to holding of the bypoll.
Petitioner Sayan Banerjee challenged the “priority” to hold the bypoll amid the pandemic and complained that it was being caused by a non-elected chief minister. Banerjee pointed to the EC’s logic of holding the Bhowanipore bypoll.
“While the Commission has decided not to hold bypolls in other 31 assembly constituencies across the country, considering the constitutional exigency and special request from the state of West Bengal, it has been decided to hold the bye-election in Bhowanipore,” the poll panel had said.