Bapi Modak 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 17382 of 2023 Bapi Modak -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.

...For the State Election Commission.

Mr. Amal Kumar Sen, Mr. Ziaul Haque.

...For the State.

The petitioner contested the Panchayat General Elections, 2023. He raises allegation with regard to the illegalities committed on the day of counting. It has been submitted that the representation was filed before the respondents on 13th July, 2023 but from the documents annexed to the writ petition there is no proof of service of the complaint before the authorities.

In view of the above, the relief sought for by the petitioner 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.)