The Calcutta High Court has directed the Highway authority to take appropriate action in accordance with law on the representation of the petitioner regarding unauthorised encroachment and construction on the extended Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj disposed of a PIL filed by one Ashutosh Pathak, seeking a direction to the official respondents to demolish the unauthorised encroachment and construction on the extended Eastern Metropolitan Bypass lying within the jurisdiction of Baruipur Police Station in the district of South 24 Parganas.
The submission of the Counsel for the petitioner is that certain unauthorised constructions have been made encroaching upon the extended Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and on account of such constructions, villagers of the locality are facing inconvenience.
The Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that action is required to be taken by the highway authority in terms of Section 10 of the West Bengal Highways Act, 1964 but in spite of repeated representations no action has been taken.
Counsel for the State has argued that if an appropriate representation is filed by the petitioner before the highway authority, then the grievance will be duly looked into.
After hearing the arguments the Bench dispose of the PIL granting liberty to the petitioner to file a detailed comprehensive representation before the concerned highway authority and on receipt of such representation, the highway authority will take appropriate action in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of 3 months from the date of receipt of the representation.
“If no action is taken in pursuance to the order of this Court within the stipulated time, the petitioner will be at liberty to approach this Court again”, the order reads.