Amrita Dey And ORS. v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.
07.10.2024 Ct. 23 D/L 3 ab
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION APPELLATE SIDE WPA 19176 of 2024 Amrita Dey & Ors.
-VsThe State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Shamit Sanyal, Ms. Priyakshi Banerjee ... for the petitioners Mr. Ajit Kumar Mishra ... for the Union of India Mr. Susovan Sengupta, Mr. Sanatan Panja ... for the State Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken on record.
Five persons have joined in this writ petition as petitioners to ventilate their grievances. The principal grievance is that they have been engaged on contractual basis under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Government Guarantee Act, 2005 under different Cluster Facilitation Project (CFP) in different districts. The petitioner no. 1 and 3 are from district Nadia while the petitioner 2 is from district Dakshin Dinajpur, the petitioner no. 4 is from district Murshidabad and the petitioner no. 5 is from district Birbum. In the same writ petition, it is difficult to direct District Magistrate of
four different districts to consider the case of the petitioners and dispose of their grievances made by a common set of representations.
After hearing the parties and considering the materials on record, in my view, justice will be subserved if the petitioner nos. 1 and 3 are granted liberty to file a fresh representation before the District Magistrate, Nadia. Similarly the petitioner no. 2 shall make a fresh representation before the District Magistrate, Dakshin Dinajpur, the petitioner no. 4 shall make a fresh representation before the District Magistrate, Murshidabad and the petitioner no. 5 shall make a fresh representation before the District Magistrate, Birbhum. Each of the petitioners shall file their respective representations by 30th November, 2024 indicating specifically their grievances.
In the event, such representations are made within 30th November, 2024, the respective District Magistrates of Nadia, Dakshin Dinajpur, Murshidabad and Birbhum shall consider such representations within a period of 12 weeks therefrom. The respective District Magistrates shall, on receipt of the representations as directed, give a personal hearing to the petitioners and dispose of the same by passing a reasoned order, which shall be communicated to the petitioners within a week thereafter.
It is made clear that if no such representations are made within the timeframe provided, the respective District Magistrates shall not entertain any representation from the side of either of the petitioners. It is also clarified that this Court has not gone into the merits of the case. The respective District Magistrates as aforesaid shall be free to decide the issue that may be raised before them, independently without being influenced by any observations made in this order. Nothing further remains to be adjudicated in this writ petition. The same is accordingly disposed of. Since I have not called for any affidavits, the allegations contained in the writ petition are deemed to have not been admitted by the respondents.
Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties upon compliance of all necessary formalities.
(Arindam Mukherjee, J.)