With the West Bengal Assembly elections just weeks away, the ruling Trinamool Congress approached the Calcutta High Court on Monday, seeking permission to file a PIL petition against the series of official transfers carried out by the Election Commission and requesting an urgent hearing.
Senior counsel and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee drew the attention of Chief Justice Sujay Paul’s division bench to the matter, stating that such large-scale transfers were causing problems in the administration’s working. The bench granted permission to file the petition, and the hearing is likely to take place on Tuesday.
The commission’s transfer orders for officials have led to a confrontation between the state and the Centre. On Sunday evening, it transferred the officers-in-charge and inspectors-in-charge of 173 police stations across the state, moving 184 police officials.
Earlier in the day, orders were issued to transfer 83 block development officers (BDO) across 18 districts and one assistant returning officer. Altogether, 267 officials—from officers-in-charge to BDOs—were transferred in a single day.
On March 15, the election dates were announced and the model code of conduct came into effect immediately. On the same day, the commission began transferring top officials, including the chief secretary, home secretary, director-general of police, as well as district magistrates, and superintendents of police across various districts.
The TMC believes that such large-scale transfers are politically motivated. However, during his visit to Kolkata on March 28, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said there was nothing unusual about such administrative reshuffles, adding that such actions were quite normal in an election-bound state.
On March 20, Kalyan Banerjee filed a PIL petition in the high court questioning the commission’s transfer of several IAS and IPS officers soon after the announcement of the Assembly polls in the state.
The elections to the 294-member Assembly will be held in two phases— on April 23 and 29—and counting on May 4.