Manoj Ghosh v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

07-07-2023 ct no. 14 Sl. 19 Sayandeep WPA 15792 of 2023 Manoj Ghosh -Versus- State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Sabir Ahmed Mr. Alokesh Dalai Mr. Biswajit Sarkar Mr. Suman biswas Mr. Dhiman Banerjee Mr. Soham Chakraborty ......for the petitioner Mr. Ashim Kr. Ganguly Ms. Jyotsna Roy ......for the State Mr. Bilwadal Bhattacharyya, Ld. DSG Mr. Debasish Tendon ... for the NIA Mr. Amitesh Banerjee, ld. Senior Standing counsel Mr. Ipsita Baenrjee .....for the State This is an application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for a direction upon the respondent authorities to quash R.C. case no. 43/ 2022/NIA/DLI dated 20.09.2022 and in meantime not to take any coercive action in this regard.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits as follows. The petitioner is a candidate of the ruling party contesting the ensuing Gram Panchayat elections for

the Bahadurpur Gram Panchayat, Birbhum. He was served with a notice by the NIA to appear at Nalhati Police Station, Birbhum, on 02.07.2023.

Because of the election process , he was unable to attend the same. The poll takes place tomorrow. At present, he is not pressing for quashing of proceedings. He may be granted a protection of a not to take any coercive steps till such date when he is required to appear again before the NIA.

Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the NIA submits as follows. The petitioner failed to turn up on 02.07.2023.

He would be required and to attend the investigating agency at the Nalhati Police Station on 10.07.2023 at 11:00hrs.

I have heard the submissions of learned counsel appearing for the parties and have perused the writ petition.

Let the petitioner participate in the election process.

He shall attend the police station for meeting the investigators on 10.07.2023 at 11 a.m.. Till then the respondent authorities shall not take any coercive

measures against the petitioner in this regard.

This order shall not have any bearing on any future action taken by the NIA or any application that may be filed by the petitioner in any Court of law.

With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of accordingly.

Urgent certified photocopy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties expeditiously on compliance of usual legal formalities.

(Jay Sengupta, J.)