On Tuesday, the High Court of Calcutta set aside an election notice of the Alipore Bar Association on a petition by a member alleging irregularities in the poll process initiated by the current Bar Association executive committee.
However, the Court directed that this order will not preclude the existing executive committee and its office bearers from initiating fresh proceedings for holding the next elections for 2023-2024 in accordance with law.
Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya set aside the election notice of the Alipore Bar Association in South 24 Parganas district dated Dec 12.
The petitioner, a member of the Alipore Bar Association, claimed that the last date of nomination papers being December 19, only seven days were given for the purpose which is not sufficient.
It was further stated that the voters' list as per the said notice was to be published on December 14 and could be availed at a cost of Rs 5,000 each.
Justice Bhattacharyya observed that in order to enable challenges to the voters' list and/or rectifications to be carried out, it is incumbent for any election process that a list of the eligible voters is published sufficiently prior to the commencement of the election process itself and not immediately prior to the election date.
An order of another bench of the high court had in connection with a different petition in 2022 observed that advance publication of the voters' list be made at least one month prior to the elections.
Justice Bhattacharyya observed that the time given for submitting nomination papers is also extremely short, since seven days may not be sufficient for a person intending to participate in the election, either as a voter or a candidate, to prepare himself or make himself available for such purpose.
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(With input from news agency language)
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