The Supreme Court has upheld the Election Commission's prerogative to appoint central government staff as counting supervisors for the West Bengal vote counting process.
The bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi declined to pass any further order after accepting ECI's submission that TMC representatives will be present during the counting of votes.
The plea was filed against the order of the Calcutta high court, which had dismissed the petition on Thursday.
The high court said it is the prerogative of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to appoint the counting supervisor and the counting assistant, either from the State government or the Central government.
The Supreme Court's stance was not any different to HC's.
The bench flagged a clear shift in TMC's stand during arguments, with senior advocate Kapil Sibal initially attacking the Election Commission circular and later arguing that it must be followed strictly.
The court observed that 'to choose wholly from one pool cannot be said to be incorrect' and that 'all of them are employees of the government.'
The Supreme Court has agreed to the contention of implementing the Election Commission's circular, with the bench saying that the ECI will follow the circular issued by them both in letter and in spirit.
