The Supreme Court on Monday accepted the tentative schedule for the Manicktala by-election submitted by the Election Commission of India.
The counsel appearing for the Commission submitted the tentative schedule in a sealed cover to a Vacation Bench of Justice PK Mishra and Justice KV Viswanathan.
Earlier, the Apex Court had granted the last opportunity to the Commission to submit the by-election schedule.
The Counsel appearing for ECI today contended that the schedule was submitted in a sealed cover as a public announcement of the same might impact the model code of conduct.
Perusing the sealed cover submitted by the ECI, the Apex Court showed its inclination to accept the schedule, noting that there was no need to keep the matter pending since the Commission was likely to proceed with the process of holding the by-elections as per the schedule submitted in the Court.
The top court of the country then disposed of the pending Civil Appeals.
The Apex Court passed the order while hearing a petition seeking to hold a by-election in Assembly Constituency 167-Maniktala and fill the casual vacancy in the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal.
The by-election was necessitated due to the death of senior Trinamool Congress leader and MLA Sadhan Pande, who had originally won the seat in 2021. Following his death and legal challenges to the election results, the Maniktala residents have remained without representation for a long time.
Kalyan Chaubey, the losing BJP candidate, apprised the Apex Court on May 6 that he intended to withdraw his election petition challenging the 2021 results. The High Court then dismissed the petition, prompting the Supreme Court to ask the ECI to draft a schedule for the by-election.