The Calcutta High Court has reserved its verdict on a Congress plea alleging a discrepancy in the election affidavit of the BJP’s Nandigram bypoll candidate, with the party clarifying that it was not seeking to cancel her candidature but questioning whether the Election Commission discharged its scrutiny duty. Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has reserved […]
The Calcutta High Court has directed the police not to take coercive steps against journalists of the Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika, until December 15, in connection with FIRs over a headline used while reporting on violence at Jadavpur University. Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya passed the order on the journalists’ plea seeking protection from arrest; the State assured no coercive action subject to their cooperation with the investigation. The allegations are untested.
The Calcutta High Court has pulled up the West Bengal government after Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, contesting the Nandigram by-poll, was arrested and remanded in a sixth criminal case from the 2007 Nandigram land-acquisition protests, despite the State’s assurance to the Court that he would not be arrested in any further 2007 case. Finding no production warrant had been served, the Court directed the police to take no coercive steps and that he not be treated as arrested in that case until October 12.
The Calcutta High Court has questioned the Election Commission over its decision to allot the ‘Envelope’ election symbol, earlier used by the Indian Secular Front, to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Trinamool faction for the upcoming by-polls. Hearing the ISF’s plea that the allotment was confusing voters in an election it too was contesting, the Court asked why the ECI had chosen that particular symbol when many others were available, observing that it should have kept it reserved.
The Calcutta High Court has held that the disability percentage certified on a candidate’s Unique Disability ID (UDID) card cannot be reassessed by the NEET Medical Assessment Board or the Appellate Authority for deciding eligibility under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities quota. The Board’s role, the Court held, is to assess whether the candidate is functionally capable of pursuing the MBBS course, not to redetermine the quantum of disability already certified under the disability-rights law.
The Calcutta High Court, hearing a plea by Nandigram bypoll candidate Milan Pradhan challenging his September 18 arrest in cases dating to the 2007 anti-land-acquisition protests, told the State to take no steps against him till October 9, after the polling date. The State submitted that of the six cases referred to, five are no longer alive and Pradhan is not an accused in the sixth, so no order was required. The matter was listed for October 12.
The Calcutta High Court has extended its interim order permitting the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the All India Trinamool Congress to operate three party bank accounts that had been frozen, holding that the Election Commission’s interim arrangement on the party name and symbol cannot be treated as a final adjudication of the factional dispute. The order runs until January 29, 2027, or until further orders. The State had opposed the plea.
A couple who had raised a child from days after his premature birth, under a notarised adoption deed, lost his custody when they approached the Child Welfare Committee to regularise the adoption for school admission. The Calcutta High Court held that the CWC has no jurisdiction over a child who is neither an orphan nor abandoned nor in need of care and protection, and directed the child returned to the couple, subject to their obtaining a proper court declaration and quarterly welfare monitoring.
Hearing a batch of PILs alleging that a man accused in the rape and murder of a young girl in Baruipur died in a fake police encounter, the Calcutta High Court directed the State to file affidavits answering the allegations and to apprise it of the progress of the investigation on the next date. The State disputes the fake-encounter claim. The Court expects the probe to conclude soon.
The West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services had directed the All India Trinamool Congress to vacate two floors of its Camac Street office in Kolkata over fire-safety lapses. The Calcutta High Court set the order aside, finding that the authority passed it a day after the party’s reply without considering that reply, without a fresh inspection, and without even serving the order on the party. It ordered fresh consideration.
