The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea that challenged the Election Commission's decision to hold the Assembly polls in West Bengal in eight phases.
The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal and critics of the BJP had alleged the move to hold the polls in eight phases was aimed at helping the saffron party in the polls. The plea had been filed on March 1 by lawyer M.L. Sharma, who sought the Supreme Court's direction to the poll panel to stop it from conducting eight-phase elections in the state as it violated Article 14 (right to life) and Article 21 of the Constitution.
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The plea was taken up for hearing by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian. The bench asked Sharma to approach the state High Court in the matter. Chief Justice Bobde was quoted by Live Law as saying, "The most serious wrong which can be committed is to curtail power of HC to refrain it from hearing election plea." "We don't agree with you. We have read the whole case, dismissed," the bench was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
The plea had also sought a direction to the CBI to register an FIR into the alleged chanting of religious slogans during electioneering in West Bengal. The chanting of "Jai Shri Ram, other religious slogans are creating disharmony" and is an offence under the IPC and the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the plea said. "Whether using a provocative religious slogan 'Jai Shri Ram' is for electoral benefits as well as others is not violated S.123(3) & 125 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951," read the legal question raised in the plea.
