Sunil Pandey v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

24.07.2023 sb. Ct.24 In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side W.P.A 16988 of 2023 Sunil Pandey versus The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Jagabandhu Ray ...For the Petitioner.

Ms. Sonal Sinha, Mr. Tarun Chatterjee, Mr. Sujit Gupta, Mr. Sayan Datta, Mr. Soumen Chatterjee ...For the State Election Commission.

Mr. Lalit Mohan Mahata Mr. Rudranil De ...For the State.

Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken on record.

The petitioner contested the Panchayat General Elections, 2023 and lost by 14 votes.

The petitioner submits that 17 ballot papers were missing. The missing ballot papers may have been used for manipulating the result of the election.

A complaint was lodged before the Commission on 15th July, 2023, but the same is yet to be disposed of. Without going into the merits of the allegation of the complaint, the instant writ petition is disposed of by

directing the Election Commission to consider and dispose of the representation filed by the petitioner on 15th July, 2023, in accordance with law, at the earliest, but positively within a period of 10 days from the date of communication of this order.

reasoned order shall be passed and communicated to the petitioner.

The learned advocate for the petitioner is directed to forward a copy of the representation dated 15th July, 2023 and all other supporting documents to the aforesaid respondent at the time of communicating the order of the Court.

The writ petition is disposed of.

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.

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

( Amrita Sinha, J.)