Meghnad Pal And ORS. v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.
In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side 03.06.2024 S/L Item No.8 gd/ssd WPA/15211/2024 MEGHNAD PAL AND OTHERS VS STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS.
Mr. Billwadal Bhattacharyya, Mr. Moyukh Mukherjee, Mr. Sayantan Sinha, Mr. Sarthak Mondal, Ms. Sarmistha Basak ..for the Petitioners.
Mr. Dipanjan Datta, Mr. Sougata Mitra, Mr. Soumen Chatterjee ..for the State.
The petitioners have been engaged as counting agents of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Tomorrow i.e. 4th June, 2024 is the day of counting of votes of the Parliament General Election, 2024. The petitioners submit that several police cases have been registered against them only because they are the members of the opposition political party.
The petitioners apprehend that the police will harass and terrorise them with the pending police cases and will disturb them in the counting process. Reference has been made to an order dated 22nd May, 2024 passed by a coordinate Bench of this Court in WPA 13474 of 2024 wherein the Court was pleased to direct the police not to take any coercive
step against the petitioners in connection with the criminal cases filed against them till 10th June, 2024. The Court was also pleased to grant liberty to the petitioners to pray for appropriate relief before the regular Court.
Learned advocate representing the State respondents relies upon the detailed report dated 3rd June, 2024 forwarded by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (HQ), Purba Medinipur. The report mentions that investigation of the case is going on and raid is going on to secure the arrest of the involved accused persons.
Admittedly, it appears that there are several cases registered against the petitioners. There may be a possibility of the arrest of the petitioner in connection with the said cases.
In terms of the relief granted by the coordinate Bench on 22nd May, 2024 in WPA 13474 of 2024 and in view of the fact that the petitioners have been appointed as counting agents and their presence will be required at the time of counting and thereafter, accordingly, the police is restrained from taking any coercive step against the petitioners in connection with the cases referred to in paragraph 8 of the writ petition till 17th June, 2024. It will be open for the petitioners to seek appropriate relief before the regular Court.
The writ petition stands disposed of.
Parties to act on the basis of the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.
(AMRITA SINHA, J.)