Supreme Court Refuses Separate Order on Vote-Count Supervisors in West Bengal Elections

The Supreme Court held a major hearing on the issue of appointing central and PSU employees as supervisors in the counting of votes for the West Bengal Assembly elections. The Supreme Court, while hearing the petition of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), refused to pass any separate order for the time being and disposed of the matter taking on record the assurance of the Election Commission. The petition was filed against the order of the Calcutta High Court dismissing the appeal of the AITC. The party challenged the decision to appoint only central and PSU employees as supervisors in the vote counting. The special bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Narsimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, heard the matter. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the AITC. Kapil Sibal said, "There is a circular of 13 April, but we got to know about it on 29." He said that it is surprising that the Election Commission apprehends disturbances in every seat and thus the Commission cannot exercise arbitrary control over the election duty.