Calcutta High Court single bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar ruled on Tuesday that the date of polling for the three-tier Panchayat elections in West Bengal would be decided by a division bench after scrutinising the security arrangements made by the state, rendering the date or May 14 as the election date, uncertain.

The court on Tuesday criticised the role of the State Election Commission (SEC) for not doing proper homework on security arrangement.

After hearing petitions filed by BJP, CPI(M) and Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS), justice Talukdar said that since a division bench was looking into the security angle, it will decide the polling date as well. The next hearing at the division bench is on May 4.

All the leaders of the Opposition welcomed the High Court ruling. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, “We had pointed out from the beginning how democracy had been throttled by the ruling regime. We had prayed for the safety and security of our party workers and those who went to cast their votes. The court has responded to it. We have no problem even if the election is conducted in a single phase. All we want is that the poll to be free and fair and that the security of the people is ensured.”

PDS general secretary Samir Putatunda said that it was good that the HC has stressed upon the security aspect. “We had pointed out that the SEC suddenly changed their thought process to opt for single phase polling with the same force at its disposal. The court condemned it and said that the division bench would decide that,” he said.

Former Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) mayor and senior HC lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said, “It is a shame that the state government and the SEC cannot conduct a Panchayat election peacefully. It is clear today that the court is not satisfied with security arrangements. Fresh nomination should be conducted without any coercion and police should arrest offenders.”

TMC MP and senior lawyer Kalyan Banerjee said that the court had said May 14 was a tentative day for polling subject to judicial scrutiny of the appeal court. “Leaders of the Opposition who don’t want the poll to be conducted are moving court because at the ground they have lost relevance,” he said.

After the last date of withdrawal on April 28, a record number of over 34 per cent seats have been won by the ruling TMC, uncontested.