KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday admitted for hearing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's election petition challenging victory of BJP's Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in the assembly elections and ordered preservation of all records pertaining to it.
Justice Shampa Sarkar directed that Banerjee's petition will be taken up for hearing on August 12.
The bench directed issuance of notice to Leader of Opposition in the Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari in the meantime.
The court ordered preservation of all records and devices related to the polls in Nandigram.
In the hotly contested election at the high-profile Nandigram constituency, Adhikari had defeated Banerjee by a margin of 1,956 votes.
"Pending the decision of this case, all documents, election papers, devices and video recordings etc connected with the election which is under challenge before this Court, shall be preserved by the concerned authority who is the custodian of the papers and documents," Justice Sarkar directed.
Justice Sarkar held that as per a report received by her bench from the high court administration, the election petition was filed in compliance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
"As per the office report, the election petition does not suffer from any defect as provided in section 86(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951," the bench said.
The court also directed the Registrar to serve a copy of the order upon the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal.
The matter was reassigned to the bench of Justice Sarkar by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal after Justice Kausik Chanda recused himself from hearing the Trinamool Congress chief's petition.
The court also on Wednesday admitted for hearing a petition by BJP leader Jitendra Kumar Tiwari challenging the election of Trinamool Congress candidate Narendranath Chakraborty from the Pandabeswar assembly constituency.
Justice R K Kapur directed issuance of notice to Chakraborty in connection with Tiwari's election petition.
The matter will be taken up for hearing on August 9.
Chakraborty defeated Tiwari by 3,803 votes from Pandabeswar in Paschim Bardhaman district in the assembly election held earlier this year.
Tiwari, who had won the seat in 2016 as a TMC candidate, had switched over to the BJP before the 2021 elections.