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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

EXTRAORDINARY JURISDICTION

SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION(C)NO.12294/2023

THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL & ORS. Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

SUVENDU ADHIKARI & ORS. Respondent(s)

WITH

SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION(C)

NOS.12303-12305/2023

AND

SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION(C)

NO.12296/2023

O R D E R

These Special Leave Petitions are directed against the Orders

passed by the Calcutta High Court dated 13.06.2023 and 15.06.2023.

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.

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

Digitally signed by

Charanjeet Kaur

Date: 2023.06.21

11:18:00 IST

Reason:

Signature Not Verified

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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.”

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

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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