A division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshri Bharadwaj on Friday rejected the BJP’s plea to deploy central forces in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls scheduled for Sunday.

The BJP had on Friday moved the division bench challenging the legality of the order passed by a single bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the high court that rejected the same petition.

After a daylong hearing, the division bench adjourned hearing in the case related to all civic polls apart from Calcutta till December 23 but uploaded its verdict related to the BJP’s central forces plea for the Calcutta elections at night on its website.

There, the division bench rejected the BJP’s plea to deploy central forces to conduct the CMC polls.

The bench, however, directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to chalk out a plan so that voters could come to polling stations and vote freely. The court in its order asked the SEC and the state government to comply with its December 14 directive to install CCTV cameras at each poll booth in the Calcutta polls.

Earlier on Friday, the counsel appearing for the BJP requested the division bench to hear the petition urgently as the election for civic body polls in the city was scheduled on Sunday. The Chief Justice decided to hear the case at noon.

Pleading their case before the division bench, the BJP counsel wanted the election to be held under the supervision of central forces, claiming the state police were acting as an agent of the (Trinamul-ruled) state government.

The lawyer claimed that their party candidates and supporters were being threatened by Trinamul supporters. After recess, at 2pm, the counsels appearing for the and the state government countered the BJP and informed the court about steps taken to make the poll hazard-free.

They informed the division bench that over 22,000 police would be deployed and CCTV cameras and armed police deployed in each booth. More than 8,000 police will be kept as reserved force, the lawyer of the SEC said.

The court asked the counsels of the SEC and the state government to name persons who would take responsibility if any untoward incident took place on polling day.

Advocate-general S.N. Mukherjee informed the court that the police commissioner and the DIG would shoulder the responsibility.

But the court expressed its doubt on whether steps taken by the SEC and the state government were sufficient as some 40 lakh voters were expected to exercise their franchise.

When asked by the court, additional advocate general Y.J. Dastoor, who appeared for the Union government, said the Centre was ready to send a central force if the court ordered for it.

At this the Chief Justice asked Dastoor to name the person who should be approached for deployment of the central force.

Dastoor responded with: “The DIG, CRPF.”

The court then adjourned the hearing for all civic polls apart from Calcutta till December 23 and said its decision on CMC polls related to the deployment of central forces would be uploaded on the high court website later on Friday night. The order on website rejected the BJP’s plea.