Nabanil Pariseba Samabay Samity Ltd And ANR v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

13.11.2024 rpan/27 WPLRT 138 of 2024 Nabanil Pariseba Samabay Samity Ltd. & Another - Versus - The State of West Bengal & Others Mr. Partha Pratim Roy, Mr. Dyutiman Banerjee, Mr. Samrat Chakraborty ... for the Petitioners.

Md. T. M. Siddiqui, Ms. Debdooti Dutta, Mr. Suddhadev Adak ... for the State/Respondents.

Affidavit-of-service, as filed, be kept on record. In spite of service, no one appears today on behalf of the private respondent nos.7 and 8.

The present writ petition arises out of an order dated 26th July, 2024 passed by the learned Tribunal in the original application (in short, OA), being OA 1702 of 2024 (LRTT).

Mr. Roy, learned advocate appearing for the petitioners submits that the OA appeared for consideration before the learned Tribunal on 26th July, 2024 when, though the government representative was present, the hearing was deferred till 25.06.2025 directing completion of effective service upon the private respondents. The hearing of the matter has thus been deferred for about eleven months. Such delay is too long in a system where justice is supposed to be swift.

He further submits that manner in which the auctions were conducted towards settlement of various ferries lack transparency and the ferries are being operated by unauthorized person(s). The complaint lodged to that effect by the petitioners had also not been considered. In such circumstances, Mr. Roy urges us to examine the merits of the OA and to resolve the issues raised therein. Mr. Siddiqui, learned Additional Government Pleader enters appearance on behalf of the State respondents. Heard the learned advocates appearing for the respective parties and considered the materials on record. The learned Tribunal is expected to regulate its own procedures in respect of the cases on Board for effective disposal and to ensure that the cases are disposed of within a reasonable period of time.

In the said conspectus, the writ petition is disposed of directing the learned Tribunal to dispose of the OA on the returnable date i.e., on 25.06.2025 or as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of four weeks thereafter, without granting any unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties.

There shall, however, be no order as to costs. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties, upon compliance of all requisite formalities.

(Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, J.) (Tapabrata Chakraborty, J.)