Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Bitika Majumder vs The Uluberia Municipality & Ors on 3 August, 2015
Author: Sambuddha Chakrabarti
Bench: Sambuddha Chakrabarti
1
03.08.2015
Srimanta
05[M/L]
W. P. No. 5907 (W) of 2015
Bitika Majumder
-Vs.-
The Uluberia Municipality & Ors.
Mr. Rama Prasad Sarkar.
...for the Petitioner.
Mr. Pantu Deb Roy,
Mr. Subrata Guha Biswas,
Mr. Amit Kumar Das.
...for the State Respondents.
Mr. Gobinda Chandra Banerjee.
...for the Respondents Nos. 5 & 7.
Let the affidavit-of-service filed in Court today be kept with the record.
The petitioner has also produced a copy of the notice sent to the concerned school along with postal receipts. Mr. Sarkar, the learned Advocate for the petitioner has assured the Court that he would file the affidavit-of-service in course of today. However, it appears from the postal documents filed in Court today that the notice upon the school authorities was already delivered on July 23, 2015.
Mr. Banerjee, the learned Advocate for the municipality has filed a report in the form of an affidavit affirmed by the Executive Officer, Uluberia municipality. I have perused the said report. The report contains as much as it does not contain. The report discloses that much as it does not disclose. The report is not in terms of the direction passed by me on July 09, 2 2015. I wanted the reasons from the authorities of the concerned municipality for excluding the name of the petitioner when the second list of cooks was sent to the concerned school after the petitioner was not allowed to work after two days of her joining the post. I directed the Chairman to file a report in the form of an affidavit. I fail to understand why the Executive Officer has affirmed the affidavit. There is no explanation in the affidavit why instead of Chairman the Executive Officer has filed the report. I directed the Chairman to annex the entire correspondence between the school and the municipality as well as the decisions taken by the municipality in different meetings only some of them have been annexed to the report in the form of an affidavit.
Assuming they represent the entire correspondence between the municipality and the different authorities on the exclusion of the name of the petitioner as the mid-day meal cook of the concerned school. The report is conspicuously silent as why her name was not excluded when she was not allowed to work after two days after she has joined. Para 6 of the affidavit which is a letter from the concerned school to the chairman of the Uluberia municipality makes a reference to an extraneous factor being responsible for the selection of cooks. It is no good mentioning in the affidavit that the school had intimated that unless a cook had been engaged 16.11 quintal of rice would be a total waste. Mention may be made that the panel of cooks was sent and the petitioner was engaged. The reasons for excluding her name have not been clarified in the affidavit. 3
It is no answer that after the order I passed on July 09, 2015 the Chairman of the municipality has recommended the name of the petitioner for some other school. That is merely circumventing the issue. The petitioner will be at liberty to join the post for she has to survive herself. But I direct the Chairman to file a fresh report in the form of an affidavit disclosing the points I directed the Chairman to disclose in the affidavit itself. The school authorities again are directed to file a report in the form of an affidavit on the next date of hearing. The school authorities also are directed to file an affidavit in terms of the order passed by me on July 09, 2015 disclosing the steps they had taken when some persons had allegedly created problems or at whose intervention the petitioner could not work as a mid-day meal cook. The school is again directed to be represented by a learned Advocate on the next date of hearing which is fixed on August 18, 2015. The petitioner is directed to communicate this order to the school authorities within three days. All such affidavits are directed to be filed on the next date.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the learned Advocates for the parties on the usual undertakings.
(Dr. Sambuddha Chakrabarti, J.)