D/L- 33 27/07/2026 Ct. No.-10 Aritra In the High Court at Calcutta Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri Appellate Side WPA 1202 of 2026 Tulshi Das @ Tulshi Chandra Das Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors. Mr. Subinay Dey Mr. Debanjan Das Ms. Sukanya Bhoumik Ms. Supriya Roy Mr. Samrat Acharya ….for the petitioner Ms. Supriya Singh, JGP, Mr. Alok Sah ….for the State Mr. Sudipto Kumar Mazumder, DSGI, Mr. Sudip Kumar Paul ….for the respondent nos.7-9 Affidavit of service filed in Court is taken on record. The petitioner claims that his property has been utilized for the purpose of construction of New Maynaguri to Jogeghopa B.G. line. From the consolidated cash voucher prepared in LAP Case No.05/2008-09, it prima facie appears to this Court that the compensation was determined in accordance with the provisions laid down under The Right To Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 more particularly the First Schedule of the said Act. The compensation amount was determined by applying the factor 1.1. 2 Mr. Das, learned advocate appearing for the petitioner submits that the applicable factor in the case on hand should be 2.0 in view of the Notification of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India dated February 9, 2016 Per contra, Ms. Singh, learned Junior Government Pleader submits that since the land in question is situated within the State of West Bengal, the appropriate Government would be the State Government and not the Central Government and the Notification dated February 9, 2016 issued by the Central Government cannot be applied to the case on hand. After hearing the learned advocates for the respective parties, it appears to this Court that the issue as to whether the State Government or the Central Government would the appropriate Government in the case of instant acquisition proceeding has to be decided. Whether the Notification(s) issued by the Central Government or the State Government with regard to the applicable factor that has to be applied to the case in hand has also to be considered. By the reasoned order dated April 24, 2026, the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Chooch Behar has applied the Notification dated July 30, 2014 issued by the State Government fixing the multiplied 1.00 to 2.00. Since various factual and legal issues have been 3 raised in this writ petition, this Court feels that such issues can be decided only after exchange of affidavits by the parties. Let affidavit-in-opposition be filed by the State as well as Authorities of North Frontier Railways within a week from date. Reply thereto, if any, be filed within a week thereafter. Parties will be at liberty to mention this matter for inclusion in the list under the heading “Hearing” after the expiry of the period fixed for exchange of affidavits. (Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J.)