Kolkata | Calcutta High Court judge Gaurang Kant, while hearing Mamata Banerjee's plea challenging the Bhabanipur assembly seat poll result, on Tuesday told the TMC chief's lawyer that his elder brother is a BJP spokesperson and he would hear the matter after full disclosure.
After the preliminary hearing of Banerjee's petition, Justice Kant ordered the preservation of the May 4 CCTV footage of the counting hall, EVMs and VVPAT machines of all polling stations in the constituency.
At the outset, the judge told Mamata Banerjee's lawyer, Kalyan Banerjee, that he wanted to "make it very clear" that his "elder brother is a national spokesperson for the BJP".
Stating that this might be of some concern as far as the petition is concerned, Justice Kant said he would hear the election petition "after full disclosure so that you don't have any issues later on."
Kalyan Banerjee, himself a Lok Sabha MP, told the court that he has all "confidence and regard" for the judge. "My confidence and respect for you as a judge is not determined by any other factor," the counsel said.
"I have confidence in the judiciary, and I believe that the Indian judiciary can be independent only when a judge is independent," the senior advocate said.
He said that Justice Kant is one of the gentlemanly and erudite judges of the high court and feels that no one is a factor to him, whether a relative or not.
"(It) doesn't matter to us, we are here to dispense justice," Justice Kant said.
On a prayer by Kalyan Banerjee, the high court directed the Election Commission to preserve and keep in safe custody the May 4 CCTV footage of the counting centre at Sakhawat Memorial School in Bhabanipur, including footage inside and outside the counting hall.
Justice Kant also ordered preserving the EVMs, including control units and ballot units used in all polling booths of Bhabanipur and all VVPAT machines used in the constituency.
Justice Kant directed that the CCTV footage, EVMs and VVPATs will not be erased, overwritten, destroyed, tampered with, transferred, redeployed, opened or dealt with in any manner without the permission of the court.
The court directed that the EVMs used at all polling stations concerned will be kept in the custody of the district election officer till final disposal of the petition by the courts.
It directed the counsel for the respondents in the petition to file their affidavits in opposition within four weeks and affidavits in reply by the petitioner in four weeks thereafter.
The matter will come up for hearing again after 12 weeks, the court said.
The election petition was filed by Mamata Banerjee on allegations of corrupt practises, illegal deletion of voters from the electoral rolls, irregularities in counting and non-compliance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Representation of People's Act.
It was alleged that a substantial number of electors were unlawfully deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR process, and the returning officer for the constituency was appointed despite an alleged conflict of interest.
Kalyan Banerjee also alleged that serious irregularities occurred during the counting process on May 4, resulting in the exclusion of the petitioner's counting agents from the counting hall and causing subsequent prejudice to the petitioner.
It was claimed that the election result was affected by the alleged irregularities.
Alleging irregularities after the 12th round of counting, the TMC counsel said that from an 18 per cent lead in Mamata Banerjee's favour, her main opponent, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP, gained an 81 per cent lead.
The counsel maintained that CCTV footage will show the occurrences inside the counting hall.
Also alleging a "quid pro quo" arrangement, Kalyan Banerjee stated before the court that the returning officer for the Bhabanipur seat election held the same position in the 2021 Nandigram election, where Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee were contestants.
He alleged favouritism on the part of the returning officer and that in 2021 also Mamata Banerjee lost the election in Nandigram.
The counsel further stated before the court that immediately after Adhikari took oath as the chief minister of West Bengal, the officer was made joint secretary in the CMO.
Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal was made the chief secretary of the state after the election, Kalyan Banerjee said, adding that Subrata Gupta, who was the special roll observer for the SIR process in West Bengal and thereafter the special observer for the assembly polls, was made special advisor to the chief minister after the election.
Adhikari won the Bhabanipur seat by a margin of 15,105 votes over Mamata Banerjee.
