SC refuses to entertain BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s plea challenging Calcutta HC order

New Delhi [India], April 6 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s plea challenging the Calcutta HC order rejecting his petition against two notifications and issue relating to computation of population for the purpose of reservation of seats for SC/ST and Backward Classes in panchayat polls in West Bengal.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice J B Pardiwala said that they will not interfere with the Calcutta HC order.
Senior Advocate PS Patwalia and advocate-on-record Aditya Sharma represented the petitioner in the matter.

Suvendu Adhikari, in his Special Leave Petition, challenged the order dated March 28, 2023, passed by the High Court at Calcutta, and said that despite observing that they found substance in the argument of the counsel for the petitioner, HC declined to interfere and left it open to the respondent Election Commission to consider the effect of the anomaly noted above in arriving at the proportion of SC/ST/BC population on the basis of the population of SC/ST arrived at by adding decadal growth of 7.5 per cent in census figure of 2011 and calculation of the population of Backward Classes on the basis of a household survey in August 2022.

Suvendu Adhikari in his plea alleged that the State Election Commission in cahoots with the State administration had favoured the present-day ruling dispensation in the forthcoming Gram Panchayat Elections by manipulating the data based on which various gram Panchayats are categorized as reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes.

The petitioner said, “The notifications issued by the State Election Commission notifications dated 29.07.2022 and 02.08.2022 (impugned notifications), outlining the directives for conducting a State-wide survey to obtain relevant information about the Backward Classes at the level of gram Panchayat constituencies for delimitation purposes are bad and ought to be quashed.”

The petitioner said that the decision of the State to use the census figure of 2011 for SC/ST population and a survey in 2022 for Backward Classes is deemed defective because it employs two different methods to ascertain the proportion of each population.

Calcutta High Court in March rejected West Bengal leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari’s plea related to elections to Gram Panchayats. Suvendu Adhikari has challenged the notifications dated July 29, 2022, and August 2, 2022, and to the issue relating to the computation of population for the purpose of reservation of seats for SC/ST and Backward Classes.

Calcutta High Court said that the notifications for reservation for SC/ST/BC and delimitation of constituencies, on the basis of population figures arrived at in pursuance to impugned notification, have already been issued and the elections are due in May 2023, hence, any interference at this stage will result in postponement of the elections.

The West Bengal State Election Commission had started the procedure for holding three-tier panchayat system elections. The Gram Panchayat Elections are due to be held in the State of

West Bengal this year, 2023. The State Election Commission had, vide notifications dated July 29, 2022, and August 2, 2022, issued various directives to compute the population of the Backward Classes for the purpose of delimitation during the upcoming Gram Panchayat Elections.