SC to hear TMC's plea today against Calcutta High Court order

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India is set to hear on Saturday a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court that dismissed its plea against the Election Commission of India (ECI) decision to appoint Central government and Central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) employees as counting supervisors and assistants for the West Bengal Assembly elections.

As per the cause list published on the official website of the apex court, the fresh petition filed by the ruling party from West Bengal will be taken up for hearing on Saturday by a bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi.

The TMC's legal team is understood to have approached the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant seeking the constitution of a Special bench for urgent listing of the matter.

The move comes a day after the Calcutta High Court rejected TMC's writ petition in its entirety and upheld the ECI's authority to appoint counting personnel from Central government and PSU establishments.

A single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao had reserved the matter earlier on Thursday after hearing the parties and later pronounced the judgment in the evening.

"It is the prerogative of the ECI to appoint counting supervisors and counting assistants either from the state government or the Central government. This Court does not find any illegality in appointing counting supervisors and counting assistants from Central government/Central PSU employees instead of state government employees," the Calcutta High Court had said.

It also added that the impugned communication issued by the West Bengal Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Vibhu Goel, was aimed at ensuring "transparency, integrity and orderly conduct of counting proceedings" and formed part of the ongoing electoral process.