statesman news service
KOLKATA, 12 JUNE: There was a heated exchange of words today between the Division Bench of Mr Arun Mishra, Chief Justice  and Mr Justice Joymalya Bagchi and the state election commission counsel, Samaraditya Pal after the latter sought deletion of the words “consensus” and “amicably settled" from the 14 May order passed by this court on the conduct of the panchayat poll.
Mentioning the matter during the day, Mr Pal submitted  that he was seeking  deletion of the words from the order and insisted that he hadn’t given consent to the order.
The Division Bench immediately said: “The order was read out in open court”. To this Mr Pal replied: “I did not hear it”. 
The Division Bench then asked: “You sought a three-phase panchayat election and it was given in the order and so was your plea for Central force to conduct the election. Why are you disagreeing then?”   
Mr Pal submitted: “These are not matters of giving consent as they had been already decided by the trial court.”  
At this point, advocate general, Bimal Chatterjee said the state would file an affidavit in the matter. Mr Pal objected to the plea and asked: “Why should the state file an  affidavit in a matter that is entirely between the state and the commission?” 
The Division Bench intervened to say: “We will hear the state’s submission.”  S
The SEC counsel then submitted that the Division Bench’s view that the supremacy of the commission in conducting the poll cannot be taken as a precedent was not acceptable to the commission since it had already been in the trial court’s order. 
Mr Pal iterated he hadn’t given consent to the order and sought its clarification.
The matter will come up for hearing tomorrow.

Poll panel extends nomination deadline in two blocks
KOLKATA, 12 JUNE: The State Election Commission (SEC) has extended the nomination deadline by a day for two blocks in Cooch Behar following widespread allegation of Opposition party candidates being stopped from filing nominations by the ruling Trinamul Congress.
The two blocks are Tufanganj I and II, where the nomination filing process was originally scheduled to end today. This is possibly the first instance this panchayat polls when the nomination deadline has been extended. 
“We have extended the nomination deadline by one day and hence nomination papers in Tufanganj I and II blocks for all three tiers of the panchayat will be accepted till tomorrow,” state election commissioner, Mira Pande, said this evening. SEC has extended the deadline under Section 46(2) of the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act, 2003, which stipulates that the extension can be granted only for a day. Prospective candidates in Tufanganj I and II blocks will be able to file their nominations tomorrow both at the BDO and SDO offices as the SEC by an earlier order had allowed the filing of nominations in SDO offices for all the 12 blocks in Cooch Behar. In normal circumstances, panchayat poll nominations are accepted only at BDO offices. sns