Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Basudeb Mandal vs State Of West Bengal & Ors on 3 February, 2015
Author: Tapen Sen
Bench: Tapen Sen
3 03.02.2015
AB Court No.34
W.P.L.R.T. 360 of 2014
Basudeb Mandal
Vs
State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Amal Kr. Das,
Mr. Supratim Dhar ...for the State.
Nobody appears for the Petitioner. However,
the State is represented by Mr. Supratim Dhar.
This is a Writ Petition in which the Petitioner
has made a prayer for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus
commanding upon the West Bengal Land Reforms &
Tenancy Tribunal to hear out O.A. No. 2889 of 2014
(LRTT) at an early date and preferably within a period of
one month.
It appears that the dispute arose when there
was non-consideration of the Petitioner's application to
correct the Record of Rights. A representation including
an Advocate's letter were filed giving rise to O.A. No. 412
of 2014 before the West Bengal Land Reforms & Tenancy
Tribunal on 7.2.2014 wherein prayer, inter alia, was for a
direction upon the Block Land & Land Reforms Officer for
consideration of the Petitioner's application.
The said application was posted for hearing at
the motions stage before the said Tribunal on
24.11.2014, but in the meanwhile, the Petitioner also
filed W.P.L.R.T. 116 of 2014 and by an Order dated
14.05.2014, another Hon'ble Division Bench disposed of that Writ Petition by directing the Block Land & Land Reforms Officer, Nabagram, Murshidabad to consider his application for correction of the Record of Rights and to dispose of the same by passing a reasoned Order after giving a reasonable opportunity of hearing to the Petitioner and to other interested parties positively within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of the Order. In view of the disposal of that Writ Petition, it was observed that the application pending before the learned Tribunal being O. A. No. 412 of 2014 (LRTT) will be deemed to have been disposed of.
It appears that thereafter, the Block Land & Land Reforms Officer, being the prescribed authority under Section 51A(4) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, took up the matter in compliance of the Order of the Hon'ble Division Bench referred to above and after having heard the parties, passed a reasoned Order whereby and whereunder the application for correction was disallowed. That Order was passed on 11.8.2014 as would be evident from page 64 of this Writ Petition. Such an Order has been made appealable under the provisions of Section 54 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 and, therefore, the Petitioner could not have approached the Tribunal vide O. A. No. 2889 of 2014 as has been stated in paragraph 13 of the Writ Petition. His remedy, if any, was by way of filing an Appeal under the provisions of Section 54 referred to above and in accordance with law.
Consequently, there cannot be a direction nor an Order issuing a Writ of Mandamus upon the West Bengal Land Reforms & Tenancy Tribunal to hear out the said O. A. No. 2889 of 2014 (LRTT) as has been submitted in this petition.
We do not find any reason to interfere.
The Writ Petition stands, accordingly, dismissed.
Urgent Photostat Certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties expeditiously after complying with all necessary legal formalities.
(Tapen Sen, J.) (Ashis Kumar Chakraborty, J.)