Kolkata, March 30 A fresh petition has been filed at a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Monday over the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s order on Sunday transferring 83 Block Development Officers (BDOs), who are also Returning Officers, and 184 Inspector-rank police officers officiating as officers-incharge or Inspectors-incharge of different police stations in West Bengal.
On behalf of the petitioner, his counsel Kalyan Banerjee, a four-time Trinamool Congress MP and senior advocate, had also pleaded for a fast-track basis hearing in the matter.
The Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, has admitted the petition, and the matter is likely to come up for hearing this week.
This is the second petition filed at the Calcutta High Court in the matter of transfers, replacement, and deputation of bureaucrats and police officers from West Bengal to other states as per the order of the ECI.
The first PIL was in relation to the transfers of top and mid-level bureaucrats and police officers from the state. The hearing on that PIL was completed last week, and the order had been kept on reserve.
During the hearing on the previous PIL, the ECI’s counsel had informed the court that the transfers of bureaucrats and police officers varied from state to state, depending on the ground-level requirement in the state concerned.
He also argued that while the Commission surely did not have unbridled power, it had the authority to take any decision in order to make the polling process free, fair and violence-free.
“There are many reasons behind all these decisions. Voting is going on in five states and Union Territories; the situation is not the same everywhere. Officers have been transferred elsewhere. Actions are taken according to the situation prevailing in the state concerned,” the ECI's counsel argued last week.
On the other hand, the petitioner’s counsel accused the ECI of taking control of bureaucrats and police officers since the beginning of the Special Intensive Revision in the state and even before the Model Code of Conduct was in force.
The petitioner’s counsel also questioned whether the ECI had the unbridled power to transfer, replace, and send on deputation any bureaucrat or a police officer according to its sweet will.
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