Calcutta High Court Weekly Round-Up: April 20 To April 26, 2026
Srinjoy Das
28 April 2026 1:25 PM IST
Orders/Judgements
Case Title: Sangita Raha & Anr. v. State of West Bengal & Ors.
Case No.: WPA 481 of 2026
The Calcutta High Court has directed the West Bengal government to issue an eligibility certificate under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 to a married couple who crossed the statutory age limit after initiating fertility treatment, holding that they should not be denied parenthood after already undergoing the Assisted Reproductive Technology process and successfully cryopreserving embryos.
Case Title: The State of West Bengal v. Gopal Das
Case No.: Death Reference No. 06 of 2024
The Calcutta High Court has acquitted a man who had been sentenced to death for allegedly murdering his wife and concealing her body in a septic tank, holding that the prosecution utterly failed to establish an unbroken chain of circumstances and that the trial court had proceeded with a “pre-determined mind” by attempting to make the facts fit the prosecution's story.
Case Name : Sk. Golam Kibria Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Case No. : FMA 1012 of 2021
A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Justice Shampa Sarkar and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta held that an employee is not entitled to pension under the West Bengal Municipal (Employees' Death cum Retirement Benefits) Rules, 2003 if the municipality had already adopted the Model Pension Rules (1984), and the employee failed to exercise the mandatory option to come under the pension scheme.
Case: Md Danish Farooqi v Election Commission of India
Case No: WPA(P) 162/2026
The Calcutta High Court has stayed a controversial communication issued from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, which allegedly identified around 800 persons as “trouble-makers” and called for action against them ahead of the Assembly elections, observing prima facie that the Election Commission cannot issue such “blanket direction” when election offences are already governed by statute.
Case: Overseas Scrap Trading Corporation vs. Howrah Municipal Corporation and Ors
Case No: W.P.A 13525 OF 2021
The Calcutta High Court has held that the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) cannot indefinitely withhold execution of sale deeds in favour of a successful auction purchaser on the pretext of pending State approval, when the governing statute itself authorises the Corporation to dispose of its property.
Justice Shampa Sarkar directed the State Government to grant the necessary approval within eight weeks and ordered HMC to execute the conveyance deeds within four weeks thereafter. The Court further clarified that if approval was not granted within the stipulated period, HMC would proceed with the execution of the deeds without any further reference to the State Government.
Case Title: Avvya Todi v. State of West Bengal & Ors.
Case No: WPA 2929 of 2026
The Calcutta High Court has refused to grant interim relief to a 16-year-old student seeking permission to sit for internal examinations after being expelled by a private school over allegations of bullying, while holding that the writ petition challenging the disciplinary action is maintainable under Article 226 of the Constitution.
Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra observed that any immediate direction permitting the student to appear in the examinations would effectively keep the expulsion order in abeyance without the Court even examining that order, which had not yet been placed on record.