Fhamida Khatoon (Nazam) vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 7279 Cal

18.10.2023 Item No.20 Court No.6.

S. De MAT 1567 of 2023 With I.A. No. CAN/1/2023

Fhamida Khatoon (Nazam).

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Asfak Ahammed ...for the appellant.

Mr. Lalit Mohan Mahato, Ld. A.G.P. Mr. Ziaul Haque, ...for the State.

A judgment and order dated July 24, 2023,

passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in the

appellant's writ petition being WPA 17095 of 2023, is

under challenge in this appeal at the instance of the

writ petitioner.

The appellant contested the Panchayat General

Elections, 2023 and lost by four votes. With the

complaint that there were several illegalities at the

time of counting of votes, the appellant approached the

learned Single Judge seeking various orders. The

learned Judge noted that the complaint before the

concerned Block Development Officer and Panchayat

Returning Officer was lodged only on July 15, 2023,

long after the counting process was over. Accordingly,

the learned Judge refused to grant relief to the

appellant leaving it open for the appellant to approach

the appropriate forum by way of election petition in

accordance with law, for redressal of her grievance, if

so advised.

Being aggrieved, the writ petitioner has come up

by way of this present appeal.

Learned advocate for the appellant referred to an

order dated July 21, 2023 passed by the same learned

Judge in WPA 17013 of 2023 (Kursed Hossain & Anr.

Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors.). He said that in

that matter also complaint was lodged by a candidate

on July 15, 2023, in respect of the same election. The

learned Judge directed the representation of the

candidate to be considered by the competent

authority. In the present case, the learned Judge

should have passed the same direction.

We have not called upon the State to make

submission.

We are of the view that in the teeth of the

Constitutional bar to the maintainability of a writ

petition involving election disputes in Article 243-O of

the Constitution of India read with the West Bengal

Panchayat Election Act, 2003 and the 2006 Rules

framed thereunder, the learned Judge ought not to

have entertained the writ petition in the earlier case

referred to by the appellant.

We do not find any infirmity in the decision of

the learned Single Judge to dismiss the writ petition,

although we are of the view that the writ petition

should have been dismissed as not maintainable and

being barred by law and not because of late filing of

complaint.

We clarify that dismissal of this appeal will not

stand in the way of the appellant pursuing any other

remedy that she may have, in accordance with law.

The appeal being MAT 1567 of 2023 is dismissed

along with the application being I.A. No. CAN/1/2023.

There is no order as to costs.

(Arijit Banerjee, J.)

(Apurba Sinha Ray, J.)