New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) authority to select personnel for vote counting in West Bengal.
The order comes ahead of the counting of votes for the West Bengal Assembly election scheduled on May 4. The ECI had issued a circular on the deployment of staff for the counting process.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) had challenged the circular before the Calcutta High Court, which dismissed the petition. The party then moved the Supreme Court, seeking urgent hearing.
A special bench comprising Justices B.S. Sharma and Jaymalya Bagchi observed that the ECI can choose vote-counting staff and that this cannot be termed illegal.
The bench further noted that even if the supervisor and the counting agent involved in the process are Central government officials, that alone is not a sufficient ground to strike down the circular.
