Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Akhirul Alam vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 4 August, 2023
Author: Amrita Sinha
Bench: Amrita Sinha
SL 29
04.08.2023
AGM
In The High Court At Calcutta
Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction
Appellate Side
W.P.A 17516 of 2023
Akhirul Alam
-versus
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Rabilal Maitra, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Siddhartha Sarkar Mondal
Mr. S. Ahmed
Mr. Ujjwal Tribedi
Mr. Nazimuddin
Ms. S. Sengupta
Ms. A. Das Sharma
Mr. Rajit Lal Maitra
Ms. Saloni Bhattacharya
Mr. Arka Chakraborty
...For the Petitioner.
Ms. Sonal Sinha
Mr. Tarun Kumar Chatterjee
Mr. Sujit Gupta
Mr. Sayan Datta
Mr. Soumen Chatterjee
...For the Election Commissioner.
Mr. Lalit Mohan Mahata
Mr. Jagabandhu Roy
... For the State.
The petitioner contested the Panchayat General
Elections, 2023.
He alleges false voting, booth capturing, rigging,
violence and several other illegalities on the day of the
poll. Complaint was lodged before the respondent
authorities on the same day. The complaint is yet to be considered. The petitioner has relied upon photographs 2 to show that massive rigging took place on the day of polling.
Without going into the merits of the allegations of the petitioner, as it appears that a representation is pending consideration before the State Election Commission, accordingly, the instant writ petition is disposed of by directing State Election Commission to consider and dispose of the representation filed by the petitioner in accordance with law at the earliest but positively within a period of ten days from the date of communication of this order.
The Commission is directed to verify the CCTV/video footages of the polling centre on the day of the poll to arrive at a conclusion to the representation filed by the petitioner.
A reasoned order shall be passed and communicated to the petitioner immediately thereafter.
The CCTV/Video footages and the ballot papers in respect of the concerned constituency shall be properly preserved and be produced before the Court as and when directed.
Learned advocate for the petitioner is directed to forward a copy of the representation dated 8 th July, 2023 seeking consideration along with all supporting documents to the aforesaid respondent at the time of communicating the order of the Court.
The constitution of the Board shall abide by the decision taken by the State Election Commission.
The writ petition stands disposed of. Urgent certified photocopy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties expeditiously on compliance of usual legal formalities.
( Amrita Sinha, J.)