Sandhyarani Mitra And ANR. v. The State Of West Bengal And ORS.
13.06.2025 Sl. No. 12 g.b.
Court No.551 W.P.A. 12070 of 2025 Sandhyarani Mitra & Anr.
-Vs- The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Barun Kumar Samanta .....For the Petitioners Mr. Pantu Deb Roy Mr. Pannalal Bandopadhyay .....For the State The petitioners are aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the respondent authorities in renewing the petitioners' permit for plying two vehicles bearing nos. WB-31A/0196 and WB31/8969 on the inter-regional route being Digha to Chittaranjan via Egra, Kharagpur, Medinipur Bus Stand, Chandrakona Road, Durgapur City Centre and Asansol. Initially the permit stood in the name of one Smt. Sandhyarani Maity (since deceased).
Upon the death of Smt. Sandhyarani Maity, the permit was transferred in the name of Sri Shyamal Mitra and Nayan Mitra on the basis of the resolution adopted by the State Transport
Authority in its meeting held on February 21, 2006.
The said permit was renewed from time to time. It was lastly renewed on May 13, 2020 and was to remain valid till March 29, 2025. Subsequently Sri Shyamal Mitra also expired. Upon the death of Sri Shyamal Mitra, the name of Sandhyarani Mitra got substituted in the place and stead of Sri Shyamal Mitra. Thus, Smt. Sandhyarani Mitra and Sri Nayan Mitra together started plying their vehicles on the said route in terms of the originally granted permit.
After expiry of the last date till which the permit was valid (i.e. March 29, 2025), two several applications were made by the petitioners on April 3, 2025 seeking further renewal of their permit. Such renewal was not done. The petitioners, therefore, made a representation through their learned advocate to the Secretary, State Transport Authority, West Bengal on May 16, 2025 in such regard. Such representation also remained pending. Being aggrieved thereby the
petitioners have approached this court by filing the instant writ petition.
Mr. Samanta, learned advocate appearing for the petitioners hands up a copy of a joint representation made by the petitioners to the Secretary, State Transport Authority, West Bengal on June 3, 2025 and submits that during the pendency of the writ petition the petitioners were called for a hearing by the Secretary, State Transport Authority, West Bengal on May 30, 2025 and during the hearing the petitioners were requested to make a joint prayer by stating their willingness to accept separate permits on the same route for their respective vehicles, one of which would ply up the route and the other down the route. The petitioners accordingly made the representation dated June 3, 2025.
The letter dated June 3, 2025 is taken on record and a copy thereof has already been served upon Mr. Deb Roy, learned advocate appearing for the State.
Mr. Samanta submits that despite such representation having been made, the authorities are yet to take a decision thereon.
Having heard the learned advocates appearing for the respective parties and having considered the material on record, this writ petition is disposed of by directing the respondent no.3 to take a decision on the petitioners' application for renewal of permit made on April 3, 2025 together with the petitioners' subsequent representation dated June 3, 2025 made to the said authority strictly in accordance with law, upon giving an opportunity of hearing to the writ petitioners within a period of 10 days from the date of communication of this order.
It is needless to mention that the respondent no.3 shall take a reasoned decision within the aforesaid time frame and communicate such reasoned decision within a period of one week from passing thereof.
WPA 12070 of 2025 stands disposed of with the above observation.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties after completion of all necessary formalities.
(Om Narayan Rai, J.)