Calcutta High Court Refuses to Stay Kolkata Municipal Ward Delimitation

The Calcutta High Court today refused to stay the West Bengal government's September delimitation notification on redrawing the boundaries of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) wards to increase their number from 144 to 209 [Dipu Das v. State of West Bengal and Ors].Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya was dealing with a plea challenging the delimitation exercise as arbitrary, procedurally defective and potentially designed to confer an electoral advantage on the ruling party (BJP).As interim relief, the petitioner had urged the Court to stay the operation of a notification issued in September, and to restrain the West Bengal State Election Commission from calling an election to the KMC on the basis of the redrawn wards until the writ petition challenging the delimitation exercise is finally decided. The Court today refused to grant the petitioner any such interim relief. It has directed the State government to file a reply to the allegations presented by the petitioner within three weeks. Justice Hiranmay BhattacharyyaThe petition was filed by one Dipu Das, a former councillor who served in the post when the State was led by a Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] regime.The plea prays for a direction to the State to rescind a notification dated September 11, 2026, delimiting the boundaries of the original 144 wards in Kolkata, thus increasing it to 209 wards, allegedly, without following appropriate protocols. According to the petition, when it came to to raising objectio