-The Hindu There is a Constitutional mandate to hold elections and they should not be postponed, says Court The Calcutta High Court rejected on Monday the West Bengal government's appeal to stay an earlier verdict by a single bench on holding rural polls in 17 districts but observed that hearing on the matter cannot continue for months on end. There is a Constitutional mandate to hold elections and they should not be...

-The Telegraph Bengal - Defrauded Many households in Calcutta have a domestic help or a driver who has lost money by investing in Saradha schemes - a common thread that has spun a perception that the poor are the sole victims of the sham company. But Sudipta Sen's promise of high returns had blurred the divide between the haves and the have-nots as well as the educated and the uneducated. Travels across the semi-urban...

-The Hindu Kolkata: A day after the Calcutta High Court ruled in favour of the State Election Commission in a dispute over rural polls, West Bengal Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee said the government would take the issue to the Supreme Court if a Division Bench upheld the single-judge's order. ‘Verdict unrealistic' Calling the verdict "unrealistic," Mr. Mukherjee told journalists on Saturday it was impossible for any government to implement the order. The High Court...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: The Bengal government will seek Calcutta High Court's permission to appoint administrators to run the three-tier panchayat system if rural polls can't be held before the term of the elected bodies ends. The term of most gram panchayats - the lowest tier - ends on June 25. If new bodies are to be formed before that, polls have to be notified by May 17, a possibility officials at Writers'...

-The Hindu Kolkata: In a setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that Panchayat polls in 17 districts be held in three phases with the government fully compensating the shortfall in security forces to the satisfaction of the State Election Commission. Justice Biswanath Somadder rejected the government's arguments on all the contentious issues in its writ petition and directed that it inform the Commission of...