NAZRUL ISLAM Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Ms. T Begum, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mr. S Dutta, learned counsel for the respondents No. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 being the authorities in the P&RD Department and Ms. M Barman, learned Junior Government Advocate for the respondents No. 3, 8 and 9 respectively being the Deputy Commissioner, Barpeta, Superintendent of Police, Barpeta and the Officer-in-Charge of Baghbor Police Station.

(2.) Pursuant to a Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) dtd. 27/6/2022 of the Mandia Anchalik Panchayat, the Showrar Bitha Janpriya Anchalik Gorur Bazar was settled with the petitioner Nazrul Islam for the year 2022-23 w.e.f. 16/8/2022 to 30/6/2023 as per the order of settlement dtd. 1/9/2022 of the Barpeta Zila Parishad. Accordingly, the petitioner entered into an agreement and is operating the cattle market.

(3.) After operating the market upon taking possession, the Officer-in-Charge of Baghbor police station had interfered with the operation of the market by requiring the petitioner to close the cattle market. In response thereof, the petitioner also filed a representation dtd. 7/10/2022 before the Barpeta Zila Parishad which is annexed as Annexure-6 to the writ petition. In the said representation of 7/10/2022 it is stated that on 1/10/2022, the Officer-in-Charge of Baghbor police station verbally directed the petitioner to stop operating the market. The petitioner was given to understand that Officer-in-Charge of Baghbor police station acted pursuant to the provisions of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021 (in short Act of 2021) as amended by the Assam Cattle Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2021 (in short Amendment Act of 2021).