Calcutta High Court
Sudha Gupta vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors on 19 June, 2024
Author: Saugata Bhattacharyya
Bench: Saugata Bhattacharyya
OD-3 ORDER SHEET
WPO 245 of 2024
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
ORIGINAL SIDE
SUDHA GUPTA
VS.
THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS.
BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE SAUGATA BHATTACHARYYA
Date: 19th June, 2024.
Mr. Anjan Bhattacharya, Ms. Anita Shaw, Advocates
for the petitioner.
Mr. Joydip Banerjee, Ms. Mousumi Banerjee,
Advocates for the State.
Mr. Saptansu Basu, Sr. Advocate, Mr. Debapriya Gupta, Advocate for
respondent nos.4 & 5.
The Court : The writ petition is heard in presence of the learned
Advocates representing the petitioner, State respondents and School
Authority.
Mr. Basu, learned Senior Advocate represents the School Authority.
During course of hearing question arises for consideration whether
the present writ petition on the Original Side is maintainable or not since
the offices of some of the respondents do not situate within the Original Side
jurisdiction of this Court.
Mr. Bhattacharya, learned Advocate representing the petitioner in
order to answer the query of this Court has relied upon a judgment of a co-
ordinate Bench dated 4th August, 2023 passed on a writ petition being WPO
3364 of 2022 (Amara Badyakar @ Angura Badyakar Vs. M/s. Eastern Coal
Fields Limited & Ors.).
It has been submitted on behalf of the respondents that in terms of
the relevant provisions of the Original Side Rules, all the respondents in the
writ petition are required to be either residing within the Original Side
jurisdiction of this Court or their offices are situated within the Original Side
jurisdiction.
Having heard the learned Advocates representing the petitioner and
the respondents and considering the ratio decided by the co-ordinate Bench
in Amara Badyakar (supra) wherein some other judgments of this Court
have been relied upon, it appears that the co-ordinate Bench has held that
the jurisdiction of Article 226 of the Constitution of India is not at all
dependent on any subsidiary rules but it is exercisable under the Court's
constitutional power. Such constitutional right of a litigant cannot be
frustrated merely because of the subsidiary rules of the High Court. Taking
cue from the observations made by the co-ordinate Bench in the judgment
dated 4th August, 2023, this Court decides to entertain the writ petition not
on the Original Side but in the Appellate Side, since some of the
respondents are outside the jurisdiction of Original Side.
Accordingly, the department is directed to convert the present writ
petition on the Original Side into a writ petition in the Appellate Side and
renumber the same within a period of seven days from date.
Advocate-on-Record of the petitioner is directed to cooperate with the
department in completing the formalities within the aforesaid time of seven
days.
After conversion of the writ petition into the writ petition in the
Appellate Side and on being renumbered, the writ petition is directed to
appear under the heading 'Motion' in the combined monthly list of July,
2024 for further consideration.
(SAUGATA BHATTACHARYYA, J.)
pa/sb
