Calcutta High Court declares election nominations via email valid

The Calcutta High Court Tuesday passed an order validating nominations by candidates via electronic mails. It asked the West Bengal Election Commission to accept nominations for Panchayat election filed by 3 pm on 23 April, reacting to a plea by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The Commission though has decided to move Supreme Court against that.

The Division Bench order makes holding polling on 14 May difficult as the commission will now need tota scrutinise the nominations filed over email.

After the court order, the Bharatiya Janata Party said it would appeal for allowing others to file their nominations via email. Calling the order historic, the party's advocate Pratap Banerjee said: “Around 2,000 nominations could not be filed by various workers of our party due to threats from Trinamool Congress.”

The Bench said filing of nominations through email would open up options for voters and reduce risks of loss of life. The legal fraternity seemed to agree that the order was a landmark one, and could give rise to similar demands in other elections across India.

“It is historic and can be a legal precedent when situation demands and people are unable to file nominations,” said former Supreme Court judge Ashok Ganguly. “Democracy is in shambles as we heard that people died out of political clash as they could not file nominations. This is not acceptable,” he added.

Another senior lawyer said “We feel the state election commission will now be more dutiful.”

CPM members expressed satisfaction and said 800 of its candidates couldn't file nominations.

Commission officials, however, now face a challenge. They will have to scrutinise fresh nominations and prepare fresh ballots, including for some seats earlier thought to be 'uncontested', a senior official said. This could delay the date of polling.

“According to the Panchayat Act, about 21 days are needed between filing of nominations and polling. So it is impossible to hold election on 14 May,” said Makhan Lal Majumder, who was with Bihar Election Commission earlier.