The Andaman And Nicobar Administration And ORS v. M/S Priya Indane And ORS

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

[ CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR *** MAT/16/2023 IA No.CAN/1/2023 The Andaman and Nicobar Administration and others Vs.

M/s Priya Indane and others Mr. Shatadru Chakraborty Mr. Dibesh Dwivedi ... for the appellants Mr. Deep Chaim Kabir ... for the respondent nos.1&2 April 19, 2023 [SR] Item No.3 By the consent of the parties, the appeal and the connected application are taken up for final disposal. This is an appeal filed by the Administration directed against the order dated March 21, 2023 passed in WPA/534/2023.

The appellants are aggrieved by the part of the said order whereby the learned Single Judge has directed an enquiry by the Lieutenant Governor, Andaman and Nicobar Islands against the Deputy Director (CS& CA) as to how the said authority has recommended "Reem Indane" to hand over the supply in respect of an area, which is under the writ petitioner/respondent.

Mr. Chakraborty, learned advocate for the appellants submits that the Administration should have been given an opportunity to explain each of their actions in the affidavitin-opposition to the writ petition directed to be filed besides the observations made in the order impugned are highly

prejudicial to the authority against whom such inquiry has been directed.

We have heard Mr. Chakraborty and have perused the materials on record.

The transparency of the distribution system has been questioned in the writ petition, the enquiry as directed would be enuring to the benefit of the Court to address the said allegations appropriately. The enquiry report would be an additional piece of evidence apart from the affidavit-inopposition to the writ petition to be filed by the appellants. We therefore do not find any reason to interfere with the order impugned. However, we make it clear that the said enquiry shall be conducted without being influenced by any of the observations made in the order impugned. As prayed for by Mr. Chakraborty, the time to file the enquiry report is extended till the next available Circuit Bench.

The appeal being MAT/16/2023 and the connected application being CAN/1/2023 are disposed of with the above terms.

All parties shall act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.

( Krishna Rao, J. ) ( Biswajit Basu, J. )