‘Preventive detentions, arrests only if essential’

Kolkata: Reminding the Election Commission of a citizen's fundamental right to liberty, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday asked it not to resort to preventive detention and arrests unless essential and only when done legally.

Disposing of a writ petition against the alleged illegal pre-poll detention of Trinamool workers and councillors, the high court said it hoped the EC would work "fairly, efficiently, impartially, without any bias, political or otherwise, and strictly in accordance with law".



The order came after Trinamool MP and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee mentioned before a bench of justices Arijit Banerjee and Partha Sarathi Sen that the HC's previous order, which stayed the EC's April 21 internal memo on preventive detentions and arrests, was being flouted. He alleged that Trinamool Congress workers and councillors were being arrested randomly, indicating the Election Commission's bias.

Banerjee also claimed that police were targeting TMC workers in Bhowanipore, noting that Kalighat Police had even misbehaved with him when questioned. "At one point, even I feared being arrested," he said. The HC agreed to hear his plea.

Banerjee said after a bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Sen stayed the EC's April 21 order on April 22, the commission issued another memo on April 27 justifying these arrests and preventive detentions.

The memo, which is part of the HC's Tuesday order, indicated that EC had asked officers on April 27 to take legal action against "troublemakers", which included arrests. The EC informed the HC that the April 27 order has since been withdrawn.

Senior advocate Jishnu Chowdhury, representing the commission, told the court that "the EC has not flouted this court's interim order passed on the earlier writ petition in any manner". "Numerous complaints of intimidation have been received by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer and the police authorities," the EC stated, declining further argument since the April 27 notification had been withdrawn.

State advocate general Kishore Datta argued that the "EC should record an undertaking that similar notifications for preventive detention will not be issued before the election". He submitted that the EC can, of course, take action against a person/s if he has committed a criminal offence or he is a history-sheeter.

Saying that it did not wish to pass a formal order on the writ petition, the high court added: "However, we trust and believe that the EC, which is a constitutional authority, and all its officers, including observers appointed by it, shall discharge their respective duties in the election process fairly, impartially… and strictly in accordance with the law."

The high court noted, "It cannot be gainsaid that it is in the interest of all the citizens of this state that the election scheduled on April 29, 2026 is held in a fair, transparent, and peaceful manner..."
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