Habiba Begum And ANR. v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

08.08.2023 d.p.

In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side W.P.A 17663 of 2023 Habiba Begum & Anr.

-versus The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Debasis Kundu, Mr. Kaunish Chakraborty, ...For the Petitioners.

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

...For the State Election Commission.

Mr. Wasim Ahmed, Sk. Md. Masud.

...For the State.

The petitioners contested the Panchayat General Elections, 2023. They raise allegation with regard to several illegalities committed on the day of the poll and also on the day of counting.

None of the objections has been responded by the authorities till date.

It appears that even though the petitioners lodged complaint on time but they filed the writ petition at a delayed point of time i.e. on 25th July, 2023. By that time, the result of the election was declared and the board is due to be constituted shortly.

Entertaining the writ petition at this stage may be prejudicial to the winning candidate.

In view of the above, the instant writ petition is disposed of by granting liberty to the petitioners to approach the competent forum with an election petition for redressal of their grievances, if so advised. 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.)