Kamal Khan v. The Secretary Of West Bengal Election Commission And ORS.

01.08.2023 d.p.

In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side W.P.A 17324 of 2023 Kamal Khan -versus The Secretary of West Bengal Election Commission & Ors.

Mr. Saikat Chatterjee, Mr. Puranjan Pal.

...For the Petitioner.

Mr. Tarun Kumar Chatterjee Mr. Sujit Gupta Mr. Sayan Datta Mr. Soumen Chatterjee ...For the State Election Commission.

The petitioner contested the Panchayat General Elections, 2023. He raises issues of several illegalities on the day of counting.

Reference has been made to a letter addressed to the Sub-Divisional Officer, Rampurhat by the Counting Officers where the Counting Officers alleged that the Block Development Officer was involved in severe beating of the said officers.

The petitioner lodged complaint before the State Election Commission on 12th July, 2023 through post. The complaint is yet to be considered.

Without going into the merits of the allegation made in the complaint filed by the petitioner, the

instant writ petition is disposed of by directing the State Election Commission to consider and dispose 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.

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

The learned advocate for the petitioner is directed to forward a copy of the complaint posted on 12th July, 2023 and the complaint written by the Counting Officers to the Sub-Divisional Officer along with all supporting documents and evidences to the State Election Commission 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 produce the same as and when called for.

The writ petition stands disposed of.

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

( Amrita Sinha, J.)