Ashok Mridha v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

Ct. No. 01 WPA(P) 107 of 2023 Ashok Mridha Vs.

AN RP 07.03.2024 State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Indrajit Roy Chowdhury Ms. Purnima Halder ... for the petitioner

1. By way of this writ petition styled as a Public Interest Litigation, the writ petitioner seeks for a direction upon the respondents to consider the representation dated 18.01.2023 requesting for issuing of specific guidelines so that the fishermen in the Sundarban locality are able to secure Boat License Certificate and maintain their livelihood by catching fish in and around the adjoining rivers of the Sundarban locality.

2. According to the petitioner, there is no specific notification published by the Forest Department as to on what basis the license will be issued and to ensure fairness, the Forest Department should come out with specific guidelines and applications should be received through online mode and transparent process should be adopted. Since the writ petition has been disposed of without calling for any affidavits, we are not examining the merits of the claim made by the petitioner but direct the 2nd respondent herein viz. The Chief Conservator & Field Director, Directorate of Forest, Government of West Bengal, Sundarban Tiger Reserve, Canning Research Range, Canning Town, South 24 Parganas to consider the

representation dated 18.01.2023 given by the petitioner. We find that the representation has been given to the 2nd respondent as well as to the 3rd respondent also.

3. Therefore, we direct the petitioner to submit a fresh representation to the 2nd respondent enclosing the copy of the earlier representation dated 18.01.2023 and other documents in possession of the petitioner alongwith the copy of this order and forward the same to the Office of the 2nd respondent. On receipt of such representation, the 2nd respondent shall consider the same and pass a speaking order and communicate the same to the writ petitioner within a period of 8 weeks from the date on which the representation is received.

4. Hence, with the above observations, the writ petition is disposed of however without any order as to costs.

(T. S. Sivagnanam) Chief Justice (Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J.)