Somjit Ray And Others vs The State Of West Bengal And Others
2023 Latest Caselaw 4095 Cal

4th July,
 2023
 (AK)
16-17

                  W.P.A 15075 of 2023

                   Somjit Ray and others
                            Vs.
            The State of West Bengal and others

                            With

                  W.P.A 15079 of 2023

                 Biplab Biswas and others
                            Vs.
            The State of West Bengal and others



             Mrs. Sonali Mitra
             Ms. Samriddhi Bose
                                       ...for the petitioners
                                    In WPA 15075 of 2023.

             Mr. M N. Roy
             Mr. B. Nandy
                                       ...for the petitioners
                                    In WPA 15079 of 2023.

             Mr. S.N. Mookerjee
             Mr. Siranya Bandopadhyay
             Mr. Arka Kr. Nag
                                             ...for the State.

             Ms. Sonal Sinha
             Mr. Tarun Kr. Chatterjee
             Mr. Sujit Gupta
             Mr. Sayan Datta
             Mr. Soumen Chatterjee
                       ...for the State Election Commission
                                         in both the matters.

             Mr. Anuran Samanta
                   ...for the Election Commission of India
                                       in both the matters.
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     Affidavits-of-service filed in court today be kept on

record.

     An interesting question has been raised in the

present writ petition.

     It has been argued by the petitioners that the

petitioners in both the matters are senior teaching staff in

Government Colleges and Universities and as such,

cannot     be   recruited   for   doing    polling    duty   in

contravention    of   the   notification   of   the   Election

Commission of India dated February 16, 2010, which

stipulates that Group-A or equivalent senior officers,

including teaching staff of Universities, Colleges etc.

should not be drafted for polling duties in polling station

premises without specific reasons to be recorded in

writing by the District Election Officer, where such

appointments become unavoidable.

     It is further argued that the West Bengal State

Election Commission, in a notification dated May 10,

2018, also stipulated that seniority of officials should

properly be taken care of while giving election related

duty and it should be ensured that a senior official is not

put on duty under an official who is quite junior to

him/her.

     It is argued that both the said petitions are being

contravened in the present Panchayat Elections by
                                  3




recruiting the present petitioners for polling duty at

polling stations.

     The learned Advocate General, appearing on behalf

of the respondent-authorities, has controverted such

contentions and, by seeking to place reliance on certain

coordinate Bench judgments of this court, argues that the

election procedure comprises of several facets.

One such facet is engagement for polling duty in the

polling stations themselves.

Such facet of the polling duties is not visited by

supervision by State authorities who are subordinate to

the polling officers in grade.

Since the said issue has arisen, the matter is

required to be heard at length.

Accordingly, let the matter be treated to be heard in

part and be listed tomorrow, that is, July 5, 2023 fairly at

the top of the list for further hearing.

(Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.)