Santa Das v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

Item No.48 In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side 21.07.2023 Ct-24 WPA 16982 of 2023 Santa Das v.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Puranjan Pal ...For the petitioner.

The petitioner contested the Panchayat General Elections, 2023 from Kaligram-1 Gram Panchayat, Booth No. 157, Chanchal Block- 1, Malda and lost by 11 votes.

Allegation is that several number of ballot papers were cancelled on account of non-signature of the Presiding Officer in the reverse.

Complaint was lodged before the Panchayat Returning Officer on July 13, 2023. The same is yet to be considered and disposed of.

Without going into the merits of the allegation made in the complaint dated July 13, 2023 filed by the petitioner, the instant writ petition is disposed of by directing the respondent no. 3 to look into the complaint filed by the petitioner at the earliest, but positively within a period of ten days from the date of communication of a copy of this order.

reasoned order shall be passed and communicated to the petitioner immediately thereafter.

The learned advocate for the petitioner is directed to forward a copy of the complaint dated July 13, 2023 along with all supporting documents to the aforesaid respondent at the time of communicating the order of the Court.

The Panchayat Returning Officer is directed to properly preserve the CCTV/Video footages and the ballot papers and to produce the same as and when called for.

The writ petition stands disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties on usual undertaking. Sh. (Amrita Sinha, J.)