Malati Talukdar v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

02.08.2023 d.p.

In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side W.P.A 17365 of 2023 Malati Talukdar -versus The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Suman Chattopadhyay, Mr. Lokenath Chatterjee, Mr. Rahul Sarkar, Ms. Dipika Sarkar, Mr. Siddhant Srivastava, Ms. Tatini Sengupta.

...For the Petitioner.

Ms. Sonal Sinha, Mr. Tarun Kumar Chatterjee, Mr. Sujit Gupta, Mr. Sayan Datta, Mr. Soumen Chatterjee, Ms. Reshma Chatterjee.

...For the State Election Commission.

Mr. Amal Kumar Sen, Mr. Jaladhi Das.

...For the State.

The petitioner contested the Panchayat General Elections, 2023. He complains of several illegalities which took place on the day of counting.

A complaint was lodged before the Governor of the State with copy to the Commission for information and taking necessary action on 15th July, 2023. The petitioner prays for consideration of the said objection.

It appears that the complaint was filed long after the date of declaration of the result.

Accordingly, the prayer of the petitioner seeking consideration of the objection cannot be allowed. The writ petition fails and is hereby dismissed. Dismissal of the writ petition will, however, not stand in the way of the petitioner from approaching the appropriate forum by way of election petition, for redressal of her grievances, if so advised.

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.)