ATUL MANDAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner earlier filed an application under Article 226 of the Constitution which was registered as WPA 1665 of 2021 inter alia, certain direction upon the SDO, Jalpaiguri/the competent authority under Sec. 8 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act to cancel/disqualified respondent No.8 and 10 as members of Salboni-I Gram Panchayat. The said writ petition was disposed of by a Coordinate Bench with the following order:-

(2.) The SDO, Jalpaiguri vide order dtd. 7/2/2022 passed an order rejecting the contention of the petitioner made out in the said petitioner. This has compelled the petitioner to challenge the said order dtd. 7/2/2022 by filing the instant writ petition. It is submitted by Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, learned Advocate for the petitioner that Sec. 8 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 speaks about disqualifications of members of gram panchayat. Sec. 8(c) states as follows:-

(3.) It is the case of the petitioner that Pradhan and members of Salboni-I Gram Panchayat had rendered themselves liable to be disqualified from Salboni-I Gram Panchyat under Sec. 8 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 since work orders were issued in favour of Smt. Rekha Mandal (Sarkar) wife of Barun Chandra Sarkar, leader of opposition, Salboni-I Gram Panchatyat and Sri. Nagen Chandra Sarkar husband of Smt. Bani Sarkar, member of Salboni-I Gram Panchayat. It is submitted by Mr. Chatterjee that the respondent No.15 Nagen Chandra Sarkar husband of Smt. Bani Sarkar who is a member of Salboni-I Gram Panchayat. Respondent No.14 Rekha Mandal is the wife of Barun Chandra Sarkar, the leader of opposition of Salboni-I Gram Panchayat. Respondent No.13 Nageswar Oraon is the husband of respondent No.10 Dipika Oraon, Pradhan of Salboni-I Gram Panchayat. They got contracts of different projects undertaken by the said Gram Panchayat under the influence of their wives or husband, as the case may be. When the husband or wife of a Gram Panchayat member is offered with the job undertaken by the Gram Panchayat in different Government Projects, the concerned member is deemed to have direct interest in the said contract. Therefore, granting job to the above named respondents automatically disqualifies the membership of respondent Nos.10, 11 and 12.