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Sunit Sarkar, a Shiksha Bandhu, had filed a petition for issuance of a writ of mandamus to allow the Shiksha Bandhus to also contest in the panchayat Elections.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday granted one more day to ‘Shiksha Bandhus’ to file nominations for upcoming Panchayat Elections. They were allowed to file nominations till today.
The division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar was hearing a writ petition filed by Sunit Sarkar. Sarkar submitted before the court that he is a public-spirited person who had been permanently employed by the State Government as Shiksha Bandhu (CLRC Coordinator).
The petition was filed for issuance of a writ of mandamus to allow the Shiksha Bandhus to also contest the panchayat Elections.
On May 27, 2022, a notification was issued that barred Shiksha Bandhus from participating in Panchayat Election. Therefore on April 21, 2023, Shiksha Bandhus submitted a representation to the State Election Commission for withdrawal of the notification dated May 27, 2022.
The advocate representing State Election Commission stated that by the notification dated June 14, 2023, SEC had directed that Shiksha Bandhus and Voluntary Resource Persons under School Education Department are eligible to contest Panchayat Elections.
Advocate appearing for Shiksha Bandhus submitted before the court that they came to know about the notification that allowed Shiksha Bandhus to contest the election at 5:30 P.M. on June 14, 2023, and there was hardly any time left for filing the nomination and, therefore, they were seeking that the date of filing the nomination be extended.
The court after hearing both parties allowed the Shiksha Bandhus and Voluntary Resource Persons to file the nominations till closing hours on June 16, 2023.
Further, the court directed that the direction of extension of time for filing the nominations shall be immediately communicated by the State Election Commission to all the Panchayat Returning Officers with a direction to accept nominations submitted by the Shiksha Bandhus and Voluntary Resource Persons under School Education Department.
The court highlighted, "This order is issued in light of the exceptional facts and circumstances of the case, as well as the submission in the prior writ petition that the commission was willing to postpone the date by one day."
Accordingly, the court disposed of the writ petition.
Case Title: Sunit Sarkar v. Commissioner, WB SEC
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