West Bengal Assembly polls: Calcutta High Court rejects TMCs challenge to ECI order on deploying central staff in vote counting
4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 1, 2026 10:28 AM IST
Outside the EVM strong room at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in Jorasanko Assembly constituency in West Bengal on Thursday. (Express photo by Partha Paul)Calcutta High Court news: The Calcutta High Court has dismissed a plea filed by the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) challenging the deployment of central government and PSU employees as counting supervisors and assistants in the West Bengal assembly elections, holding that the decision falls within the domain of the Election Commission and does not suffer from any illegality. Justice Krishna Rao rejected the plea, which had assailed a communication issued by the additional chief electoral officer mandating that at least one among the counting supervisor or counting assistant at each counting table be a central government or central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) employee.
Justice Krishna Rao heard the matter on April 30.“It is the prerogative of the office of the Election Commission of India to appoint the counting supervisor and counting assistant either from the State Government or the Central Government. This Court does not find any illegality for appointing counting supervisor and counting assistant from the Central Government/Central PSU employee instead of State Government employee,” the Calcutta High Court said in its order dated April 30. Arguments
Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandhopadhyay, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the additional chief electoral officer, West Bengal, had issued the impugned communication without any jurisdiction. He further submitted that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has fixed the counting of votes for the state Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal for on May 4, 2026. He argued that in other places, the ECI did not appoint any central government or central PSU employees as counting supervisors or counting assistants but only in West Bengal. On the other hand, Senior Advocate Jishnu Chowdhury, appearing for the additional chief electoral officer, submitted that the petitioner had filed the plea only on apprehension. He submitted that the additional chief electoral officer, West Bengal, had issued the said communication only for the purpose of ensuring, transparency, integrity and orderly conduct of counting proceedings.
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