Krishna Kumar Biswas & Ors vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 2709 Cal

01.    19.04.2023
       Court No.6
      Tanmoy Ghosh
                                           MAT 609 of 2023

                                   Krishna Kumar Biswas & Ors.
                                              -Versus-
                                  The State of West Bengal & Ors.

                                                 With
                                         IA No: CAN/1/2023

                         Mr. Dhiman Kr. Sen Gupta, Adv.,
                         Ms. Sweta Saha, Adv.
                                         ...for the appellants.

                         Mr. Srijan Nayak, Adv.,
                         Mr. Biplab Das, Adv.
                                         ...for the respondent nos. 4 &5 /

West Bengal Co-operative Election Commission.

Mr. Ankit Sureka, Adv., Mr. Asis Dutta, Adv.

...for the respondent nos. 8, 10 & 11.

By consent of the appearing parties, the appeal and

the connected application are taken up together for

hearing.

This appeal is directed against a judgment and order

dated March 22, 2023, whereby the writ petition of the

appellants being WPA 6244 of 2023 was disposed of.

The appellants/writ petitioners approached the

learned Single Judge praying for a direction upon the Co-

operative Election Commission to hold election of the

concerned Co-operative Society. There were other prayers

in the writ petition also on the basis of allegations of

irregular appointment of Board of Administrator.

The learned Judge directed the West Bengal Co-

operative Election Commission who was the respondent

no.4 in the writ petition "to initiate and expedite the process

of election in question of the Society in accordance with law

and conclude the same within a period of six months from

the date of communication of this order."

Insofar as the other prayers in the writ petition are

concerned, the learned Judge noticed that the writ

petitioners had made a representation dated February 21,

2023, through their Lawyer amongst others, to the Deputy

Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Co-operation

Department, who was the respondent no.3 in the writ

petition. The said representation was also regarding alleged

illegal appointment of Board of Administrator of the

concerned Co-operative Society and alleged illegal

membership of 285 members in gross violation of the

provision of the Statute. The learned Judge has directed

the respondent no.3 being the Deputy Secretary,

mentioned above, "to consider and dispose of the

representation of the petitioners dated 21st February, 2023

being Annexure P-8 to the writ petition in accordance with

law and by passing a reasoned and speaking order after

giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioners or their

authorised representative, within six weeks from the date of

communication of this order."

We see nothing wrong with the approach of the

learned Single Judge. The prayer of the writ petitioners for

holding election has been allowed. The other grievance of

the writ petitioners regarding illegal appointment of Board

of Administrator and illegal membership of 285 members

has also been ventilated by them before the Deputy

Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Co-operation

Department, who has been directed by the learned Single

Judge to dispose of the representation/complaint of the

writ petitioners, in accordance with law, observing the

principles of natural justice. The Deputy Secretary,

Government of West Bengal, Co-operation Department

shall dispose of the representation/complaint of the

appellants/writ petitioners dated February 21, 2023 (page

67 of the stay petition) in terms of the order of the learned

Single Judge within three (3) weeks from the date of

communication of this order along with a copy of the

representation dated February 21, 2023.

We find no infirmity in the order under appeal.

Since we have not called for affidavits, the allegations

in the stay petition shall be deemed not to have been

admitted by the respondents.

The appeal being MAT 609 of 2023 and the connected

application being IA No: CAN/1/2023 are accordingly

dismissed.

Let urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if

applied for, be made available to the parties upon

compliance with all requisite formalities.

(Apurba Sinha Ray, J.) (Arijit Banerjee, J.)