Tapan Kumar Sahana vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 4259 Cal

   D/L
Item No. 03
17.07.2023
 KOLE
                                 MAT 689 of 2023
                                      With
                               IA No. CAN 1 of 2023

                              Tapan Kumar Sahana
                                       -Vs.-
                          The State of West Bengal & Ors.


              Mr. Biswajit De,
              Ms. M. Manna,
                                                           ... for the appellant.


              Mr. Srinath Singh,
                                                                ... for the State.



                         This appeal is directed against a judgment and order

               dated February 28, 2023, whereby the appellant's writ

               petition being WPA 2724 of 2023 was disposed of.

                         The appellant had approached the learned Single

               Judge with the grievance that the Pradhan of the concerned

               Gram Panchayat was not acting in terms of Section 21A(p) of

               the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973.               The private

               respondent was using a road for carrying on his personal

business and was involved in illegal quarrying of sand. The

representation made to the Pradhan has not been considered

at all. With this grievance, the appellant filed the writ

petition.

By the order impugned, the learned Judge disposed of

the writ petition with the following observations:-

"Learned Advocate for the Pradhan submits that the dispute is entirely private in nature, between relatives. The petitioner and the respondent no. 7 are so-sharers of the disputed land through which a passage has been created for business purpose.

Under such circumstances, no order can be passed on the Pradhan of Berugram Gram Panchayat.

This order shall not present the petitioner from approaching the competent authority in accordance with law as also the competent civil court."

Being aggrieved, the writ petitioner has come up by

way of this appeal.

From the affidavit of service filed in Court, we find

that the Pradhan has refused to accept service. The private

respondent, in spite of service, is not represented.

Having heard learned Counsel for the appellant, we

are of the view that ends of justice will be served if the

Pradhan is directed to dispose of the appellant's

representation in accordance with law.

Accordingly, we direct the Pradhan of Berugram

Gram Panchayat, being the respondent no. 4 herein, to

dispose of the representation dated January 21, 2023 (page

34 of the stay application) in accordance with law, by a

reasoned order, within a period of four weeks from the date

of communication of this order along with a copy of the

representation, after affording reasonable opportunity of

hearing to all concerned parties including the appellant and

the private respondent herein or their authorized

representatives. The order so passed shall be communicated

to the parties within a week from the date of the order.

Needless to say, if the Pradhan finds substance in the

complaint of the appellant/writ petitioner, appropriate

remedial steps will be taken by the Pradhan including

referring the matter to any higher authority if the same is

required by law.

Since we have not called for affidavits, the allegations

made in the stay application are deemed not to be admitted

by the respondents.

The order impugned is set aside.

The appeal and the connected application are,

accordingly, disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order be

supplied to the parties, if applied for, as early as possible.

(Arijit Banerjee, J.)

(Apurba Sinha Ray, J.)