S.Ravindran v. The Administrator And ORS.
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
[ CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR ] *** WPA/2/2021 S. Ravindran Vs.
The Administrator and Others Mr. Gopala Binnu Kumar .... for the petitioner Mr. Shatadru Chakraborty Mr. Dibesh Dwivedi ... for the Administration February 29, 2024 [SR] Item No.1 This is an application praying for quashing of an order dated 02.12.2020 passed by the respondent no.4 whereby the claim of the petitioner for allotment of Tsunami Shelter was rejected and for a direction upon the respondent authority to allot a permanent Tsunami Shelter to the petitioner, as has been done to other similarly placed persons.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits as follows. The petitioner is a Tsunami affected person and he lost all his belongings and house during Tsunami at the Katchal Island. The petitioner was compelled to live in a temporary Tsunami Shelter. This would be evident from a document issued by the respondent authorities themselves being a communication dated 04.12.2018 issued by the Assistant Commissioner, Nancowry in this regard. The petitioner's case is supported by a certificate dated 13.01.2012 issued by the Vice Chief, Katchal. These were not taken into consideration in the impugned order. The impugned order did not even refer to the purported scheme under the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Utilization of Vacant Tsunami Permanent Shelter Scheme, 2015 that is being relied upon by the Administration. Several other
similarly placed individual as being mentioned in paragraph 26 of the writ petition were granted the relief which is being sought in this writ petition.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Administration relies on a report dated 03.01.2022, a copy of which is taken on record and a copy of the same is served upon the learned counsel for the petitioner and submits that the petitioner is a government servant and does not fall within a Scheme of 2015 about persons who are to be provided with permanent shelter, after being affected by the Tsunami of 2004. Furthermore, there is no proof that the petitioner was in a temporary shelter at any point of time so as to claim such relief.
It appears that the impugned order rejecting the petitioner's prayer for permanent shelter neither has any reference to the Scheme of 2015 nor deals with the certificate issued by the Vice Chief, Katchal and the letter issued by the Assistant Commissioner, Nancowry.
It is also contended by the petitioner that other similarly circumstanced persons were granted the relief of permanent shelter. Therefore, the writ petition is disposed of by setting aside the impugned order and remanding back the same to the Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman for passing a fresh order, after hearing the petitioner and upon taking into consideration the certificate issued by the Vice Chief, Katchal and the communication dated 04.12.2018 issued by the Assistant Commissioner, Nancowry as annexed in the writ petition.
The entire exercise shall be concluded within three months from the date of communication of this order and the decision shall be communicated to the petitioner within a week therefrom.
Urgent Photostat certified copy of the judgment, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance of all legal formalities. All the parties shall act on the basis of server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Hon'ble Court.
( Jay Sengupta, J. )