The Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the West Bengal State Election Commission to conduct itself in a neutral manner, and said it had floundered in upholding its constitutional obligations, PTI reported. The court, however, refused to interfere in the schedule of the panchayat elections in the state.

The court was hearing a petition challenging the single-phase elections announced by the State Election Commission. The panchayat polls were earlier scheduled for May 1, May 3 and May 5, but were rescheduled to May 14. The Opposition parties had claimed this would lead to violence by ruling party workers as there would not be enough security for single-phase elections.

The division bench of Justices B Somadder and A Mukherjee said it expected that the election panel would redeem itself by treating the court’s observations as a wake-up call. The court said that the decision to reduce the number of phases without providing necessary clarification had inevitably raised eyebrows and could have been avoided.

The run-up to the elections has been mired in controversy with the Bharatiya Janata Party and other Opposition parties accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress of preventing their candidates from filing nomination papers.

On April 20, the Calcutta High Court directed the State Election Commission to issue fresh dates for the filing of nomination for the panchayat polls. This also necessitated a rescheduling of the election itself as there has to be a gap of 21 days between the last date of nomination and the first day of polling.