West Bengal post-poll violence: HC dismisses state govt's plea; refuses to stay NHRC probe

The Mamata Banerjee-led government suffered a big setback on Monday as the Calcutta High Court dismissed its plea to recall or stay the order over the post-poll violence in West Bengal. The 5-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar had directed the National Human Rights Commission chairperson to form a committee to examine all complaints pertaining to the violence. The bench's order dated June 18 empowered the panel to visit the affected areas and submit a comprehensive report to the HC on the present situation.

Ordering the state government to provide all logistic support to the panel, the court warned that obstruction of any kind may invite contempt action. BJP leader Priyanka Tibrewal had alleged that over 200 persons have been unable to return back home owing to the continued threat to their lives. Moreover, the West Bengal Legal Services Authority (WBLSA) received 3243 complaints till noon on June 10 pertaining to a range of issues such as looting, threats, assault, sexual assault, ransom demand, land-grabbing and forced closure of businesses.

Thereafter, the HC rapped the state government for failing to take concrete steps on the complaints. During the hearing on Monday, Advocate General Kishore Dutta mentioned that he could not inform the court of the steps taken by the West Bengal government as he was not given a copy of the WBSLA report. When he asked for a stay on the order for 2-3 days, Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal stressed that the NHRC had to be involved owing to the allegation that the police is not taking any action.

He added, "Your conduct, in this case, does not inspire the confidence of this court". Moreover, Justice Mukerji questioned Dutta on how the State Human Rights Commission had not received any complaints related to post-poll violence. On the other hand, Justice Sen told the AG that there is no need to recall the order as the proceedings are in the nature of fact-finding. The hearing also saw Dutta argue that every incident cannot be branded as post-poll violence.

Responding to this, the court clarified that it will decide the scope of post-poll violence. Pronouncing its order, the HC stated, "After hearing the parties, we don't find any case for recalling/ modification/ stay of June 18 order. State can place its submissions and along with action taken before the NHRC. We are not sitting in appeal over the order passed by us. Application is accordingly dismissed".

Post-poll violence in West Bengal

BJP, Congress, CPI(M), TMC and ISF have been up in arms over the violence which claimed at least 16 lives after the declaration of poll results. While the MHA sought a detailed report from the state government regarding the "post-election violence targeting opposition political workers in the state" and sent a 4-member team there, PM Modi called up Dhankhar and expressed his anguish at the law and order situation. Though TMC attributed the deaths to "intra-BJP fights," Banerjee requested everyone to remain peaceful.

Meanwhile, BJP president JP Nadda visited WB for two days where he met the families of the affected party workers in Pratapnagar, Beliaghata, North 24 Parganas and Gopalpur. In another development, CM Mamata Banerjee announced a compensation of Rs.2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased persons. She also warned that her government will act against anyone circulating "fake videos" on post-poll violence. Ignoring Banerjee's opposition, the WB Governor visited violence-hit areas in Cooch Behar and areas of Assam where people from the state are camping.