HC refuses to interfere with Gorkhaland Territorial Administration poll process

Kolkata/Darjeeling: Calcutta High Court on Friday refused a stay on the ensuing polls for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) on June 26. It also didn’t pass any restraint order on the publication of the election results that the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) had prayed for.
Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya declined to interfere with the GTA poll process.The court, however, said it would consider the core of the GNLF writ petition about the justifiability of the GTA after hearing the petitioner and the respondents, namely the state, later.
GNLF supremo and then prevalent Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) chairman Subash Ghising had moved the high court in 2011 challenging the formation of GTA by way of a tripartite agreement without amending the Constitution. The Centre, the state and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha were signatories to the agreement.
The GNLF petition said that the GTA Act, adopted by replacing the DGHC Act, didn’t have “constitutional backing”. The DGHC Act, 1988 was exempt from operations of the Panchayat Act and municipal laws. GNLF claimed that the repeal of the DGHC Act brought back the three-tier panchayat system in place, leaving no room for the GTA.
Advocate general SN Mookherjee submitted that the poll process was on and there was no scope for judicial intervention at this stage. He added that the plea challenging the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Act was pending adjudication since 2012. Mookherjee submitted that there was no stay on the Act so far.