Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Smt. Samala Rajak vs The State Of West Bengal & Others on 6 April, 2022
06.04.2022
Item No.18
Court No.6.
AB (k)
M.A.T. 460 of 2022
With
I A CAN 1 of 2022
Smt. Samala Rajak
Vs
The State of West Bengal & Others
Mr. Chitta Ranjan Chakraborty,
Mr. Kashiswar Ghosal ...for the Appellant.
Mr. Lalit Mohan Mahata,
Mr. Supratim Dhar ...for the State.
Mr. Monoranjan Mahata
....for the Respondent No. 6.
By consent of the parties, the appeal and the
application are taken up together for hearing.
In the writ petition, a prayer was made for a
direction upon the respondent no.4 in the writ
petition, the relevant Block Development Officer, to
convene a meeting for the election of the Pradhan of
Mankiary Gram Panchayat, and also to arrange for the
election of the Pradhan of the said Panchayat, which
was reserved for Scheduled Caste candidate.
In the said writ petition, an interim order was
prayed for injuncting the respondents, particularly
respondent no.6, being the Upa-Pradhan from taking
any policy decision and not to make any capital
expenditure till the election of the Pradhan of
Mankiary Gram Panchayat is over.
The learned Single Judge declined to grant any
interim order in view of the judgment reported at
(2010) 2 WBLR (Cal) 201 (Prahbati Sarkar v. State
of West Bengal). The learned Single Judge has
observed that the appellant/writ petitioner is the sole
Scheduled Caste candidate of the relevant Panchayat,
who was removed. She herself proposed her name for
being elected but the election was not held because
none had proposed her name.
In view of the observations made in Prahbati
Sarkar (supra), the learned Judge gave directions for
filing of affidavits. Liberty was given to the parties to
mention the matter after the completion of affidavits.
This appeal has been preferred against the
refusal of the learned Single Judge to pass an interim
order.
We are of the view that the nature of interim
order as mentioned above could not have been granted
by the learned Single Judge since an interim order is
passed only in aid of the final relief.
We are also of the view that if such interim order
is passed that would unnecessarily stand in the way of
smooth functioning of the Panchayat.
The respondents will file their affidavit within
April 24, 2022, before the learned Single Judge. The
appellant/writ petitioner will be at liberty to file her
reply within two weeks thereafter. The parties will be
at liberty to mention the matter before the learned
Single Judge for early hearing.
Since we have not called for affidavits, the
allegations in the application are deemed not to be
admitted by the respondents.
MAT No.460 of 2022 stands disposed of along
with IA CAN 1 of 2022.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if
applied for, be supplied expeditiously after compliance
with all the necessary formalities.
(Kausik Chanda, J.) (Arijit Banerjee, J.)
