SC to hear Centre's plea on withdrawal of forces from Darjeeling, Kalimpong

The Centre on Wednesday sought an urgent hearing from the Supreme Court on its plea challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order suspending its move to withdraw para-military forces from Darjeeling and Kalimpong.

On West Bengal government’s request, about 15 companies of the forces were deployed in two districts after normal life was affected there since June due to demand for a separate Gorkhaland.

Advocate W A Quadri, representing the Union government, mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Justice J Chelameswar.

He said the Calcutta High Court had on October 17 stayed the decision to withdraw the forces.

The counsel submitted that the forces were to be deployed for election duties in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and for other security reasons in states of Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast including on Myanmar border.

The court agreed to the put the Centre’s special leave petition for consideration on October 27.The petition stated that the decision to withdraw 10 company of forces from the two districts was taken after assessing the ground situation and withdrawal of 104-day strike over there.

It said the high court order raised question “whether under the Indian constitutional jurisprudence, courts could express their opinion as to whether at a particular juncture or under a particular situation prevailing in the country, which policy should be adopted and how the national security of the country is maintained and how the armed forces should be deployed.”

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