IMPORTANT POINT
Conduct of free and fair elections–Democratic nations burgeon on strength of purity and impartiality in elections and India, being a colossal democracy demands such a process – Free and fair elections are at heart of democracy.

ORDER :

1. These Special Leave Petitions are directed against the Orders passed by the Calcutta High Court dated 13.06.2023 and 15.06.2023.

2. We have heard learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners, who are the State of West Bengal and the State Election Commission of the State of West Bengal as well as the learned senior counsel appearing for the respondents as well as learned counsel for impleading applicants before the High Court and have perused the materials placed on record.

3. The Writ Petitions, out of which these Special Leave Petitions arise, were filed by way of Public Interest Litigation before the Calcutta High Court seeking several directions with regard to the conduct of free and fair elections to the 75000 seats through 61000 polling booths throughout the State of West Bengal insofar as the local bodies are concerned. The Public Interest Petitions sought, inter alia, the following reliefs, which are encapsulated as under:-

“(i) to direct the State Election Commission to immediately file a report marking the areas which are sensitive after considering the Election Commission of India Report earmarking sensitive areas during the 2021 Assembly Elections as well as the NHRC and a special committee report filed pursuant to the directions issued in the post-poll violence case in WPA (P) No. 142 of 2021 and 144 of 2021 and immediately requisition and deploy Central Paramilitary Forces in such areas and also at the areas where the State security assessment report denotes to have inadequate force to provide security till after the declaration of the results;

(ii) to direct the State Election Commission to allow filing of nomination by the candidates contesting in Gram Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad who were prevented from filing their nominations in the respective offices of the SDOs;

(iii) to direct the State Election Commission to ensure that all police personnel have to present their Government issued photo identity card along with Badge Number, tag and Aadhar Card and also other State Government Officials while discharging election related duties.”

4. Learned senior counsel, Sri Siddharth Aggarwal, Ms. Meenakshi Arora as well as Sri Kamat appearing for the State of West Bengal as well as the State Election Commission advanced arguments. They drew our attention to the observations of the High Court in Paragraph 16 and the consequent direction issued in Paragraph 17 of the Order dated 15.06.2023. For the sake of immediate reference, the said paragraphs are extracted as under :-

“16. In the light of the observations in the preceding paragraphs and also taking note of the fact that no appreciable steps have been taken ever since the order was passed in the earlier writ petitions and till date no effective steps have been taken to identify sensitive areas from law and order point of view and in the light of the submission on behalf of the commission that it may take a couple of more days to do so, we are of the view that waiting any longer will cause more damage to the situation and will not aid in protecting the purity of the election process.

17. In the result, this writ petition is disposed of by directing the State Election Commission to requisition the deployment of Central Forces for all Districts in the State of West Bengal and this direction shall be complied with by the State Election Commission within 48 hours from the date of the receipt of the server copy of this order. On receipt of the requisition the appropriate authority of the Central Government shall deploy the required number of Central Forces and the cost to be borne by the Central Government and no part of it to be charged to the Government of West Bengal. The State Election Commission shall issue a circular that all officers who have been assigned for election duty shall display their identify cards prominently and whenever any of the observers or any authority calls upon to prove their identity, they should readily and immediately produ