Post Poll Violence In West Bengal- Calcutta HC Directs NHRC, NCW, Etc To Forward Affected Persons' Complaint To State DGP

Dealing with a clutch of Public Interest Litigation petition seeking urgent reliefs in relation to the State of West Bengal in view of the widespread violence and which erupted in the aftermath of the assembly elections, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday (May 18) directed,"If any person has suffered on account of post-poll violence, he shall be at liberty to file a complaint along with the supporting documents to the National Human Rights Commission, West Bengal Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women, and National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes."A Five-Judge-Bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice I. P. Mukerji, Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Soumen Sen, and Justice Subrata Talukdar further directed these commissions to forward those complaints to the Director-General of Police, West Bengal immediately. The Court was dealing with different petitions (read about them here, here, and here) filed by different persons, who either appeared in person or represented by counsels, different allegations have been made. The State responded to some of the petitions whereas, in some, affidavits-in-opposition are yet to be filed. On the last date of hearing, the Court had requested the Advocate General to apprise the Court about any designated e-mail id to enable the aggrieved persons to lodge their complaints online, however, this information was not furnished today.,It was in response to the allegation of the petitioners, that they were not permitted to lodge complaints in the police station, and in some cases they were unable to do so as that they had to run away from their places of residence. The Court had further directed in the previous order that the National Human Rights Commission, West Bengal Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women and National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, which had received a number of complaints with reference to post-poll violence in the State of West Bengal should forward those to the official e-mail id of the Director-General of Police, West Bengal. However, today the information as regards the number of complaints received by the Director-General of Police from the aforesaid Commissions was not been furnished in Court. A request was thus for grant of time to furnish this information. to this, the Court said that the aforesaid information be furnished to the Court on the next date of hearing. The matters have been listed for further consideration on May 25, 2021.Also read: Calcutta High Court Calls For Report From State Govt Regarding Law & Order Situation, Steps Taken To Prevent Post Poll Violence In West BengalPost Poll Violence- "Will Take All Possible Steps To Ensure There Is No Violence In Future": West Bengal Govt. Submits Before Calcutta High CourtClick Here To Download OrderRead Order

Post Poll Violence In West Bengal- Calcutta HC Directs NHRC, NCW, Etc To Forward Affected Persons' Complaint To State DGP

Sparsh Upadhyay

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