Kolkata, Oct 20 (IANS) A division vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit in a case where the petitioner had alleged lack of availability of stamp paper worth Rs 10 and Rs 20 in the market suddenly.
A petition filed in the matter came up for hearing at the division vacation bench of Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi earlier in the afternoon.
At the end of the hearing, the said bench directed the state government to submit an affidavit in this matter before November 20.
The bench also directed the plaintiff to also submit an affidavit before November 27.
The next hearing on the matter has been scheduled on December 11.
A person named Surjit Mandal, who filed the petition, alleged that more than 25,000 stamp papers have been taken from authorised vendors using the police.
The petitions also alleged that these stamp papers were being sent to various police stations, as a result of which, the common people had been facing problems in getting stamp papers.
The petitioner claimed that the Supreme Court has ordered the submission of an affidavit in the case related to the name and election symbol of the Trinamool Congress.
The Democratic Trinamool Congress, that is the faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee, had been accused in the petition, of collection of stamp papers in large numbers influencing the state administration and the police for use in the affidavits related to the statements of Trinamool Congress supporters.
Since there were not many people from the Ritabrata-led faction, the petitioner alleged, the police were going door to door to make ordinary Trinamool Congress workers sign the stamp papers.
The plaintiff has questioned the legality of this process of collection of stamp paper in large numbers and claimed that there are specific laws and registration rules for the collection and use of stamp papers.
“But the method in which the stamp papers were being collected and used was not following those rules,” the petitioner had alleged.
The petitioner urged the Calcutta High Court to order the police to stop the process and also requested for a court order for confiscation of stamp papers already collected through that process.
During the hearing on Tuesday afternoon, the state government rubbished the allegations of the petition and also said that it intended to submit a detailed report in the matter to the court.
Thereafter, the court directed the state government to file an affidavit in the matter by November 20.
–IANS
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