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Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal v. State of West Bengal & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2018 INSC 318Decided 9 Apr 2018
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 302 of 2018
Justice R.K. Agrawal · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

With West Bengal's panchayat elections already notified, the BJP's West Bengal unit approached the Supreme Court directly, alleging that its candidates were being violently prevented from collecting and submitting nomination papers by supporters of the ruling party, and citing newspaper reports (including one of a person allegedly beaten to death while trying to file a nomination). The party asked the Court to direct the State Election Commission to allow online submission of nomination forms and to direct deployment of central paramilitary forces for protection during the election.

Decision Breakdown

The State argued the petition was not maintainable since no individual candidate had come forward with specifics, and relied on settled Supreme Court precedent that once an election process has been set in motion, courts should not interfere with it: grievances should instead go to the State Election Commission, which has statutory power to address them. The Supreme Court agreed that it should not interfere with an already-notified election process, but noted that the State Election Commission had itself already issued a notification providing an additional venue for filing nominations, which corroborated that real problems existed on the ground. The Court disposed of the petition by granting liberty to all political parties and candidates (including independents) to approach the State Election Commissioner with any individual or collective grievance, directing that any such grievance be decided promptly and in accordance with law, and expressing hope that the Commission would take steps to ensure candidates were not deprived of their chance to contest.

Lesson Learnt

Courts are generally reluctant to intervene directly in an election process once it has been set in motion; the proper first recourse for grievances about nomination or campaign obstruction is the Election Commission itself, which has the statutory authority and is expected to act swiftly on specific, substantiated complaints.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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