The Calcutta High Court dismissed a petition challenging the decision to deploy CRPF at highly sensitive polling stations in the state. On April 18, the commission issued a directive stating that based on various intelligence inputs and sources, the decision was made to deploy the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at extremely sensitive booths to ensure free and peaceful voting. The Trinamool Congress approached the court seeking the dismissal of this directive. On Friday, the court ruled that there is nothing illegal in the directive. The Election Commission followed the necessary rules for deploying forces.
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Lawyer Anirban Roy, representing the Trinamool Congress, claimed that the ‘Manual on Force Deployment’ was not properly followed when deploying forces. The identification of sensitive areas should have started at least six months before voting. In this case, the directive was issued after the election process began. The CRPF deployment was intentional. In response, Election Commission lawyer Dama Seshadri Naidu argued that according to Article 329(b) of the Constitution, the court cannot intervene midway through the electoral process.
According to Section 1.3 of the 2023 manual, this decision was made to control the law and order situation and ensure fear-free voting. The CRPF is not an enemy of any particular political party. The judge observed, ‘This decision was based on information and intelligence reports. The mapping of sensitive areas was done beforehand. District magistrates and police superintendents were aware of the situation.’
