Partha Sarathi Dutta v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

AD. 32.

January 13, 2021.

MNS.

W. P. A. 601 of 2021 (Via video conference) Partha Sarathi Dutta Vs.

State of West Bengal and others Mr. Devajyoti Barman, Ms. Sanjukta Basu Mallick ... for the petitioner.

Mr. N. C. Bihani, Ms. Papiya Banerjee Bihani, Mr. Soumyajit Ghosh ...for the respondent-authorities.

Affidavit-of-service filed in Court today be taken on record.

The petitioner filed this writ petition with the dual grievance that the petitioner's complaint filed before the respondents under Section 31 of the West Bengal Housing Industry Regulatory Act, 2017, was not being heard and/or disposed of by the respondent-authorities.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits today, when the matter is taken up for hearing, that the first part of the grievance has been mitigated, but the complaint is required to be decided upon by the respondent-authorities expeditiously.

Learned counsel appearing for the respondent-authorities submits that, due to the ongoing pandemic situation, these sort of matters could not be decided expeditiously. However, thereafter the hearing of the petitioner's complaint was taken up on January 11, 2021 and has been subsequently fixed for further hearing and/or order on January 29, 2021.

It is submitted that a token penalty was imposed on the private respondent on January 11, 2021 for not complying with an earlier order of the authorities. As such, nothing much is left to be done by the respondent-authorities than to dispose of the complaint upon hearing the parties duly.

In view of the above submissions, it is evident that the respondent-authorities are not taking adequate steps with regard to hearing of the petitioner's complaint.

Accordingly, W. P. A. 601 of 2021 is disposed of with the expectation that the respondent-authorities shall dispose of the petitioner's complaint in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible, preferably within February 28, 2021.

There will be no order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copies of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance with the requisite formalities.

(Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.)