Kajalbaran Jana v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

11.11.2025 sdas WPA 30585 of 2024 Dr. Kajalbaran Jana Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Biswarup Biswas Mr. Nupur Chaudhuri .... for the petitioner Mr. Amitava Chowdhury Mr. Ritoban Sarkar .... for the State Mr. Raja Saha Mr. Sanjoy Mukherjee Ms. B. Roy .... for the respondents no. 3 & 4 Mr. Subhrangsu Panda Ms. Ina Bhattacharya Ms. Mithu Singha Mahapara .... for the respondent no. 6

1. Let affidavit-of-service filed in Court be kept on record.

2. The petitioner, an aspiring principal of an aided college, was unsuccessful, on the ground of the age bar.

3. Having failed to get an empanelment the petitioner had applied under the Right to Information Act, for a limited purpose, to furnish information to him, if any other person, beyond the stipulated age, has been empanelled by the concerned authority or not?.

4. The application was not replied by the State Public Information Officer (in short SPIO), for

which an appeal was preferred, which was dismissed and a second appeal therefrom was also carried by the petitioner.

5. In the second appeal, the West Bengal Information Commission, by an order of November 18, 2024, held that such information was not accessible to him and also not available to him.

6. Mr. Panda, learned Advocate appearing for the respondent no. 6, submits that there is no such provision for relaxation of age, for the purpose of empanelment and indeed the intention of the petitioner is quite questionable.

7. However, he further submits that information regarding such query made by the petitioner can be furnished to the extent as to how many candidates, who had surpassed the age limit, were empanelled, upon relaxation of their age, by the Higher Education Department, if at all.

8. Let such information, as aforestated, be furnished by November 30, 2025, to the petitioner.

9. The writ petition is, thus, disposed of with the aforestated direction.

10.There shall, however, be no order as to costs. 11.Since no affidavit is called for, the allegations contained in the writ petition, are deemed to be denied.

12.Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties on usual undertaking.

(Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.)