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Devdutta Maji @ Devdutta Majhi v. State of West Bengal and Ors.

Calcutta HC14 Dec 2021WPA(P)/340/2021

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Petitioner sought CCTV surveillance in polling booths and strong rooms for the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation election. The State Election Commission accepted the prayer. The Court disposed of the petition by directing the respondents to install cameras as per their statement.

What did the court decide?

Directing respondent Nos. 2 and 3 to provide CCTV cameras in all main and auxiliary polling booths and in the strong room where EVMs will be kept for the forthcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation Elec

Devdutta Maji @ Devdutta Majhi Vs State of West Bengal and Ors. — Election Law | Calcutta HC (2021)

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December 14, 2021 Item No.20 Court No.1 SG/s.biswas

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WPA (P) 340 of 2021

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Devdutta Maji @ Devdutta Majhi

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vs.

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The State of West Bengal and others

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(Through Video Conference)

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Mr. Subhabrata Chowdhury, Mr. Gopal Chandra Monal, Ms. Tripti Pandey, Mr. Biswajit Goswami, Advocates

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..for the Petitioner

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Mr. S. N. Mookherjee, ld. Advocate General Mr. Anirban Ray, ld. Govt. Pleader Mr. Md. T.M. Siddiqui, Mr. N. Chatterjee, Advocates

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..for the State

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Ms. Sonal Sinha, Mr. Prashant Kumar Tripathi, Advocates ..for the W.B. State Election Commission

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Affidavit of service filed by the petitioner be kept with the record.

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This petition has been filed with a prayer to direct the respondent authorities especially respondent Nos.2 and 3 to get all the 4842 main and 365 additional auxiliary polling booths under CCTV surveillance on the day of polling as also the strong room where EVMs will be kept till the date of counting. The prayer in this petition has been made in respect of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for the polling to be held on 19.12.2021.

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Though some ancillary issues have also been raised in the petition but when the matter is heard today, learned counsel for the petitioner has confined the prayer for installing the CCTV cameras in all the polling stations including the main booths as also the auxiliary booths and the strong room.

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WPA (P) 340 of 2021

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Learned counsel for the respondent Nos.2 and 3 has submitted that presently the provision has been made to have the CCTV cameras in 25 per cent polling booth, but the respondent Nos.2 and 3 have no difficulty in accepting the petitioner’s payer for installing the CCTV cameras in all the main as well as auxiliary booths and also in the strong room where the EVMs will be kept.

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Learned Advocate General has submitted that the State has no role in this issue.

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Having regard to the fact that installation of CCTV cameras will add to transparency in the election process and the State Election Commission i.e. respondent Nos.2 and 3 have duly accepted the prayer of the petitioner, no further adjudication in this petition is required.

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Hence, the present petition is disposed of by directing the respondent Nos.2 and 3 to act in accordance with the statement made before this Court and provide CCTV cameras in all the main and auxiliary polling booths as also in strong room where EVMs will be kept in the forthcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation Election.

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Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties on usual undertaking.

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[Prakash Shrivastava, C.J.]

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[Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.]

Devdutta Maji @ Devdutta Majhi v. State of West Bengal and Ors.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Devdutta Maji @ Devdutta Majhi v. State of West Bengal and Ors.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

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