Justice Gaurang Kanth of the Calcutta High Court handed Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari a fresh deadline of October 1 to file his written statement in the election petition lodged by his predecessor, Mamata Banerjee. The ruling resolves a procedural standoff where Adhikari's legal team had failed to meet the previous September 1 deadline, citing the need for internal conferences to draft a robust defense against allegations of corrupt practices and irregular voter deletions.
The stakes are high. Banerjee accused Adhikari of manipulating the count in Bhabanipur, where he secured a victory by a margin of over 15,000 votes. Her initial petition, filed in June, alleged illegal deletions from the electoral roll and specific irregularities during the counting process. The court previously granted a four-week extension on August 4, but Adhikari’s counsel argued that the complexity of the case required additional time to coordinate with representatives.
Crucially, the judiciary has already locked down the physical evidence. On June 23, Justice Kanth directed the Election Commission of India to place the EVMs, VVPAT machines, and CCTV footage from the Sakhawat Memorial School counting center under strict safe custody. The order is absolute: no equipment can be erased, overwritten, destroyed, or redeployed without explicit permission from the bench. This move prevents any post-poll tampering while the legal battle unfolds in the open court.
The next critical date is October 1. Once the written statement is filed, the court will likely schedule a hearing to examine the allegations against the 15,000-vote margin. With the digital and physical evidence sequestered by the High Court, the focus now shifts entirely to the legal arguments that Adhikari’s team must construct before the end of the month.