Dr. Biswajit Bhaduri vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 7268 Cal

     28.10.22
10   Ct. No.42
     Sws.M /SB
                                     WPA 23306 of 2022


                                    Dr. Biswajit Bhaduri
                                             Vs.
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                       Mr. Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya
                       Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee
                       Ms. Gargi Goswami
                                              ...for the petitioner

                       Mr. Saibalendu Bhowmik
                       Mr. Biplab Guha
                       Mr. Subrata Bhattacharjee

                                   .....for the respondent Nos. 3,5 & 6

Mr. Suman Sengupta Mr. Dip Jyoti Chakraborty

Mr. Tapan Kumar Mukherjee Mr. Amal Sen Mrs. Sangeeta Roy Mr. Somnath Naskar ...for the State

Affidavit-of-Service filed in Court today be taken

on record.

Learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of

the petitioner submits as follows. The petitioner is a

medical practitioner registered with the West Bengal

Medical Council. He was a candidate for the election to

the State Medical Council. But, in course of election

process his name was unlawfully removed from the

ballot paper. Earlier, a Division Bench of this Court

presided over by the Hon'ble the Chief Justice had

directed to ensure that a free and fair election takes

place. In complete violation of the same, the instant

election was conducted. It is pertinent to mention that

the said elections are not governed by the People's

Representation Act. The ratio of the Hon'ble Apex

Court on the point that the writ court should

ordinarily not interfere with the election process, is not

strictly applicable in the instant case. At present, the

petitioner only prays for preservation of records

regarding such election.

Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the

Respondent No. 4 submits as follows. Relying on

certain judgments, it is submitted that the writ court

should not ordinarily interfere with the functioning of

the election process. If at all, an election petition ought

to be filed. But, the same has not been done in the

present case. There is not urgency in preserving the

records pertaining to the election in question and the

directions passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench have

been complied with. There is no specific prayer to

preserve the records.

Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the

State submits as follows. As would appear from the

document at page 67 of the writ petition, the direction

of the Hon'ble Division Bench has been complied with

and the same was never challenged before this Court.

On 2004.2022 in MAT 1497 of 2022, the Hon'ble

Division Bench of this Court, inter alia, directed as

follows:

" 7. In view of the aforesaid, we are of the opinion that the installation of CCTV cameras at the appropriate place and appointment of observer will facilitate the transparent and fair election process. The representation of the respondent No. 1 in this regard is already pending before the ad-hoc Committee. Appellant is also permitted to file the representation in this regard within 24 hours. The ad-hoc Committee is directed to take decision on these representations within 48 hours from now keeping in view the observations which are already made above. The appeal is accordingly disposed of."

The petitioner alleges that in violation of the

above directions, the election process was undertaken.

It appears that the matter needs to be heard at

length.

The question of maintainability is kept open.

However, in interest of justice, let there be a

direction to preserve the records pertaining to the

election process in question till disposal of the writ

petition.

Let this matter come up for hearing before the

Regular Bench on 09.11.2022.

Parties shall act on a server copy of the order

obtained from the official website of High Court at

Calcutta.

(Jay Sengupta, J)