Hirak Kar And ORS v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

11-04-2025 Item No.24 Subrata Bhattacharyya IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side AR(C) WPA No.8500 of 2025 Hirak Kar & Ors.

-vsThe State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Subhabrata Chowdhury Ms. Tripti Pandey ...for the petitioners Mr. Rajarshi Basu Mr. Subhendu Sengupta ...for the State Mr. Goutam Misra Mr. Senasish Mukherjee Mr. Vaskar Pal ...for the private respondents 1.

The petitioners allege that Press Club, Kolkata is acting against the provisions of the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 and also contrary to the Rules and Regulations of the Press Club. 2.

A detailed objection has been filed by the petitioners before the Registrar and the Additional Registrar of Firms and Societies in January 2025. The same is yet to be considered.

3.

Learned counsel for the Press Club denies the allegations raised by the petitioners.

4.

As it appears that the objection filed by the petitioners is pending consideration before the concerned authority, accordingly, without going into the merits of the claim of the petitioners, the instant writ petition is disposed of by directing the Additional Registrar of Firms and Societies, the second respondent herein, to consider and dispose of the objection filed by the petitioners in

accordance with law, after giving reasonable opportunity of hearing to all the necessary parties and by passing a reasoned decision.

5.

Steps shall be taken in the matter at the earliest but positively within eight weeks from the date of communication of this order.

6.

The reasoned decision once given shall be communicated to the petitioners immediately thereafter.

7.

Learned counsel for the petitioners is directed to forward a copy of the representation received by the authority on January 30, 2025 along with all relevant documents to the aforesaid respondent at the time of communicating the order of the Court.

8.

Steps taken by the Press Club in the meantime shall abide by the decision taken by the second respondent in this matter.

9.

All parties are to act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.

10.

Certified copy of this order, if applied for, shall be made available to the parties.

[Amrita Sinha, J]