On the petition filed by Trinamool Congress against the deployment of central employees on counting of votes, the Supreme Court on Saturday said that there is no need to pass any further order on TMC’s petition against the Election Commission’s circular on the deployment of central government employees.
A special bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi heard the petition and said the Election Commission can choose the counting staff. Its circular of April 13 is not wrong. There is also a provision for deployment of state government employees. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal presented TMC’s side in the Supreme Court.
Sibal said that the media says that our petition was rejected. This is wrong. He said that the Supreme Court has not rejected TMC’s petition on the deployment of central employees in counting of votes, but has agreed with them in implementing the Election Commission’s circular.
Usually, when a case is in the court and I am a lawyer in it, I do not comment on it, but this is an exception. The mainstream media is playing out what happened in court. News that our petition was rejected. This in itself is wrong. Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate.
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Kapil Sibal held a press conference in Delhi. In this he said that the court has directed the Election Commission to implement its circular. Sibal said, ‘TMC had argued in the High Court that the circular was wrong because in it the Election Commission feared irregularities in the counting of votes in some booths. For this reason, a central employee will be deployed at every booth. A micro observer nominated by the central government is anyway at the booths. The High Court justified the circular.
Sibal further said, ‘We have decided not to challenge the circular in the Supreme Court. Instead, the court was requested to implement the circular. We argued that if you are deploying a central government employee then you should also deploy a state government employee. We were not challenging the circular. We said implement it. The top court said that the Election Commission will follow the circular in letter and spirit. The media’s statement that our petition has been rejected… is wrong.
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TMC had challenged the Election Commission’s circular in the Calcutta High Court. There was talk of deployment of central employees as counting observers. However, the High Court rejected TMC’s petition and declared the circular correct. Later TMC reached the Supreme Court. On Saturday, a special bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi heard the petition and refused to pass any directions on TMC’s plea.
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