Pande at the panel office after the verdict. Picture by Amit Datta

Calcutta, May 10: On judgment day, state election commissioner Mira Pande did not get the chance to catch a proper meal till 6.15pm.

Over a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits at the commission’s office near Shakespeare Sarani around two hours after the Calcutta High Court verdict, a visibly relieved Pande told The Telegraph she was “happy” that the court had “vindicated” the state election commission’s stand.

“I am happy that the court has vindicated the stand that we have taken. What our next plan of action is going to be, what are the directions given by the court and how we are going to carry them out, all these we will have to decide after getting a copy of the court order,” Pande said, occasionally glancing at TV channels showing chief minister Mamata Banerjee addressing a rally in Burdwan.

The state poll panel chief came to know about the high court verdict on television around 4pm. Minutes later, state election commission secretary Tapas Ray called her up from outside the court. Since then, she has been flooded with congratulatory calls and text messages.

“Thank you very much, but let’s see what happens finally,” Pande told those who called her up.

Delivering his 125-page judgment, Justice Biswanath Somadder agreed with every point put forward by commission barrister Samaraditya Pal and ordered the state government to “satisfy” the poll panel with the deployment of adequate security arrangements, including central forces, to hold three-phase panchayat polls.

Today was one of the biggest days in the career of Pande, a 1974-batch IAS officer who took charge of the commission in 2009 following an early retirement.

After over a year’s tussle with the state government over key issues such as the deployment of central forces for ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections, the commission had taken a stand to be true to the responsibilities entrusted to the panel and her by the Constitution, Pande said.

She declined comment on the state government’s plan to move a division bench of the court on Monday.

“The commission will have to carry out the directions of the honourable high court. We will study the directions after we get a copy of the order and then we’ll be able to chalk out a plan of action,” said Pande, an MSc in social planning from the London School of Economics who loves to read the works of Elizabethan playwrights and Victorian novelists in her spare time besides listening to eastern classical music.

The former additional chief secretary, cottage and small-scale industries, still has a long way to go before the issue of the panchayat elections is effectively resolved.

Legal experts said that if the division bench turned down the government’s plea, the administration could move the Supreme Court, in which case the elections were unlikely to be conducted in the next few months.

“We must stay the course. We have come a long way to stand up for what we know is right. Now is not the time to relent,” said Pande, who had been targeted by some Trinamul leaders, including Mukul Roy .