Won't allow polls in Bengal seats that saw violence on Ram Navami, warns Calcutta HC

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday warned that it would not allow voting in Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal, which witnessed communal violence during the Ram Navami celebrations, India Today reported. The court made this observation during a hearing on petitions on the violence that took place in Murshidabad on April 13 and 17 during a Ram Navami procession.

"If people can't live in peace and harmony, we will say that the Election Commission can't hold parliamentary elections in these districts. That's the only way," the bench headed by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam said. "Despite the Model Code of Conduct being invoked, if two sets of people are fighting like this, they don't deserve any elected representatives."

The court noted that similar processions took place in Kolkata on Ram Navami as well, but no violence was reported. "In Kolkata also, there are 23 places where celebrations were held but no untoward incident happened. If this happens when the MCC is in place, what do the state police do? What are the central forces doing? Both couldn't contain the clashes," the bench noted.

The HC asked the state counsel about how many people have been arrested in connection with the violence-related cases. To this, the state counsel informed the court that the CID has now taken over the investigation.

The bench replied, "We propose that we will make a recommendation to the Election Commission of India that people who can't celebrate in peace should not be allowed to participate in elections."

The clashes took place in the Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency in Murshidabad. Two petitions have been filed seeking CBI and NIA investigations into the clashes on April 13 and 17 within Baharampur.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Kolkata area convenor Amiya Sarkar and the regional convenor of Muslim Rashtriya Mancha, West Bengal and Sikkim, S A Afzal, are the petitioners in the two PILs. While the former prayed for NIA investigation, the latter sought both CBI and NIA probes into the incidents.

The court was informed by the lawyer of one of the petitioners that the first incident took place at Kamnagar under Beldanga police station on April 13 and the second one at Saktipur on April 17.

In the order, the division bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, directed the West Bengal government to file a report on the next hearing date in the form of an affidavit.

The court granted liberty to state and central investigating agencies to file their affidavits if they so desire. "In the instant case we find a peculiar feature that both the writ petitioners have contended that in the past there has been no violence during Ram Navami festival and this is the first time such an incident has occurred," the bench said.

The court said it will consider how the matter is to be probed after the affidavit is filed. It directed that the petitions will come up for hearing on April 26. The bench asked what the police were doing when the incidents took place in Murshidabad district with the MCC in force.

Appearing for the state, senior counsel Amitesh Banerjee informed the court that the state CID has taken over the investigations into the incidents of April 13 and 17.

(With inputs from Nalini Sharma & PTI)