The Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhatatcharya was hearing the case. West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday submitted a report before the Calcutta High Court with a suggestion of extension of the date for filing Panchayat nominations by one day to June 16. Earlier, the SEC announced the last date for nomination as June 15.

“Prima facie, we are of the view that the time limit fixed in the notification is inadequate. The State Election Commission can fix a reasonable time for the prospective candidates to file their nominations because it is insisted that nominations have to be filed in physical form,” the court had observed on June 9.

The panchayat election is scheduled to be held on July 8.

Both BJP LoP Suvendu Adhikari and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had filed PILs demanding extension of nomination dates and deployment of central forces.

“There is a dearth of police officers. If there was central force deployment from the beginning, it would have been helpful to gain confidence of the people during the entire polling process,” Koustav Bagchi, Lawyer of Congress, said.Meanwhile, in a separate case, the state government employees had moved court demanding central forces for the safety of their employees, who work as poll workers during elections. Bhaskar Ghosh, representative of Joint Employees Forum, said, “Recently a government employee was beaten up during nomination. We will not participate in the polling process without central forces.”