West Bengal panchayat elections 2018: After poll setback, here is what Mamata Banerjee govt has done

A day after the High Court stalled the three-tier panchayat poll proceedings, the West Bengal government on Friday moved the division bench of High Court challenging the order. The division bench — comprising Justice Biswanath Samaddar and Justice Arindam Mukherjee — however, rejected the plea of TMC MP and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee for a fast-track hearing and said the matter would be heard on April 16. The bench said hearing on the matter could be carried out only after notice had been served to all parties concerned.

The bench, observing that although the SEC had been the most affected owing to the stalling of poll procedure, said there had been no petition from their end and thus had directed the SEC to file a petition in this regard. Banerjee refused to talk to media persons on the issue. On April 9, the last date for filing of nomination by intending candidates of the panchayat elections, the SEC, following agitations by different political parties had issued a notification late in the evening for extending the last day of filing nominations by a day.

However, on April 10, in another notification early in the morning he rescinded the notification of date extension citing legalities. The BJP and CPM had moved Supreme Court against the rollback and while the Supreme Court ruled that the High Court would deal with the issue, the High Court on Thursday stalled poll procedure and sought a report from the SEC.