Calcutta High Court: The Division Bench of Rajesh Bindal, CJ. (A), and Arijit Banerjee, J., on 07-05-2021 had entertained the PIL which was filed in public interest regarding violence which was taking place in various parts of the State after Assembly Elections, 2021. The PIL had emphasized on the inaction of the police which was causing danger to the life and liberty of the people.
Considering the importance where life and liberty of the people in the State of West Bengal was at stake and the issues sought to be raised by the petitioner, Larger Bench was constituted to hear the present petition which will include Rajesh Bindal, C.J.(A), I.P. Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen, Subrata Talukdar, JJ.,.
Mr Kishore Dutta, Mr Abhratosh Majumdar and Mr Sayan Sinha counsel for the State had sought adjournment to file affidavit of the Home Secretary of the State specifying the areas where the violence has taken place and the steps taken to prevent or control the same. The matter was further adjourned to be taken up on 10-05-2021.
On 10-05-2021 the report in the form of an affidavit was filed. However, the counsel for the petitioner Mr Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, Mr Pronay Basak,Ms Debapriya Samanta and Mr Santanu Maji, the counsel for Union of India, Mr Y. J. Dastoor ( Additional Solicitor General) and Mr Arijit Majumdar and counsel for the respondent 2 Mr Dipayan Choudhury and Mr Suvrodal Choudhury submitted that they have not been served with the copy of the affidavit. Hence, they were not able to respond to the same. Mr Dastoor further had submitted that in number of cases the complaints were not registered by the police stations concerned when approached and that there is no online mechanism available in the State of West Bengal where a complainant can file a complaint to the police. On contrary Mr Dutta submitted that the allegations made by the counsel that the complaints filed to the police were not entertained, was false and he cannot respond to this allegation, as there were no details available. He further submitted that from 09-052021 onwards there was no violence reported in the State.
The Court directed that the copies of the affidavit be furnished to the counsel of the petitioner, learned Additional Solicitor General of India and the counsel appearing for the Election Commission of India. The matter is adjourned to be heard on 17-05-2021.
[Anindya sundar Das v. Union of India, 2021 SCC OnLine Cal 1614, 07-05-2021, 10-05-2021]
Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant has put this report together