The high court on Tuesday ordered the Election Commission to preserve all documents, along with CCTV footage, EVMs and VVPATs, related to the polling in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency where chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had defeated her predecessor Mamata Banerjee.

Justice Gaurang Kanth issued the order on an election petition filed by Mamata last week, challenging Suvendu’s victory. She alleged gross misconduct during the tabulation of votes at Sakhawat Memorial Govt. Girls’ High School, particularly after 12 rounds of counting.

In his interim order, the judge directed the petitioner to make Suvendu, Subrata Gupta (who was the special electoral observer then and the chief adviser to the chief minister now), and Manoj Agarwal (the then chief electoral officer (CEO) and the current chief secretary) parties to the case.

Appearing for Mamata, senior advocate and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay requested the judge to issue an interim order asking the EC to preserve the CCTV footage and VVPATs.

After hearing Bandyopadhyay, the judge issued the interim order and fixed the matter for hearing after 12 weeks.

Bandyopadhyay said: “It is said that election petitions are never disposed of....Kindly dispose of the case as early as possible.”