Conduct of Elections Not a License to Violence: SC

In June 2023, the Supreme Court rejected petitions against Calcutta High Court’s order to deploy central forces for local body elections. Know more about this development from the IAS exam perspective in this post.

SC Judgement: Elections Not a License to Violence

The Supreme Court dismissed the objections of the West Bengal government and State Election Commission to the High Court order of deploying central forces in all districts of the state for panchayat polls.

• The Supreme Court said that the conduct of elections cannot be a licence to violence.
• The vacation bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Manoj Misra dismissed the appeals and said that the tenor of the order of the High Court is to ensure that free and fair elections are conducted in the entire State of West Bengal.
• The Special Leave Petition was dismissed based on the fact that there is a need to conduct elections on a single day and there is a huge volume of booths set up.
• Justice Nagarathna told the state and the SEC that holding elections cannot be a licence for violence and West Bengal is a state having grass root democracy up to the local level and there is a need to ensure free and fair elections.
• The West Bengal state argued that the police force of West Bengal is enough to handle the elections.
• The state said that only 189 of the 61,636 polling booths have been identified as sensitive and the state has more than 50,000-60,000 police personnel capable of being deployed.
• The Supreme Court said to the SEC that deployment of force whether from the centre or state will only aid in discharging its duty.

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