Kolkata Municipal polls on hold as Calcutta HC restrains issuing election notification

The Calcutta High Court has restrained the West Bengal State Election Commission from issuing a notification for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election until a single bench decides a petition challenging the redrawing of ward boundaries, news agency Press Trust of India reported.The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has begun revising its ward boundaries ahead of the civic polls. Under the plan, the number of wards may increase from 144 to 209.A division bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Arjun Ray Mukherjee passed the direction on Friday, according to PTI. The vacation bench ordered the State Election Commission not to issue an election notification until the petition pending before the single bench is disposed of.The petitioner, Dipu Das, a former CPI(M) councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, has challenged the process and sought a declaration that the exercise to determine the number of wards is invalid. He has also sought the quashing of the September 11 notification. Das claimed that the civic body had no elected council and that its former chairperson, Smita Pandey, had been appointed administrator after the House was dissolved on June 8.The petitioner had also sought an interim stay on the ward delimitation notification and an order restraining the State Election Commission from announcing the municipal election. On October 29, the single bench refused to grant the interim stay sought by Das and asked the parties to file affidavits in the case. Das then approached the division bench against the refusal.He alleged that the ward boundaries were being revised using electoral rolls rather than the actual population, leaving a substantial number of residents out of consideration.The State Election Commission will, therefore, have to wait for the single bench to decide the petition before issuing a notification for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election.- Ends