D/L53 28.09.2026 Bpg. WPA No.6007 of 2026 Gita Karak Versus The State of West Bengal & Ors. Mr. Soumitra Bandyopadhyay Mr. Priyabrata Batabyal Mr. Srinath Singha Roy. …for the petitioner. Mr. Swagata Datta Ms. Ankita Dey. …for the State. Mr. Dipankar Das Ms. Mriduipal Bhattacharyya. …for the respondent nos.2 & 3. 1. Affidavit-of-service filed by the petitioner is taken on record. 2. The petitioner, the respondent-State and the respondent National Highways Authority of India (‘NHAI’ in short) are represented by their respective counsel. 3. None appears for the private respondent no.9 despite service. 4. By filing the present writ petition, the writ petitioner has prayed for issuance of writ/writs against the respondent 4 authority more specifically against the respondent no.4 authority 2 commanding him to remove and/or demolish the alleged illegal encroachment as made by the private respondent no.9 over the national highway adjacent to the writ petitioner’s land. 5. At the time of hearing Mr. Batabyal, learned advocate appearing on behalf of the writ petitioner draws the attention of this Court in paragraph 5 of the instant writ petition vis-a-vis page no.30 being annexure P/1. It is argued that it is the specific case of the petitioner that she is the owner of a portion of land in L.R. Dag No.558 of Mouza- Jagatpur, under Police Station-Rajapur in District of Howrah. 6. It is further submitted by Mr. Batabyal that it is the further case of the writ petitioner that the private respondent most illegally encroached a portion of the national highway no.16 in such a fashion that the contiguous land of the writ petitioner, particulars of which has been mentioned in paragraph 5 of the instant writ petition, cannot be approached on account of obstruction regarding egress and ingress. It is argued by Mr. Batabyal that despite submission of representation dated 13.02.2026, a copy of which has been annexed at page nos.56 to 59 with the respondent no.4 authority, the respondent no.4 authority is not 3 doing anything despite issuance of the notification dated 29.10.2025 whereby the respondent no.4 being the jurisdictional District Magistrate was empowered to remove the encroachment under Section 26 of the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002 (‘the said Act’ in short). 7. Learned advocates appearing on behalf of the NHAI and for the respondents-State in their usual fairness submitted before this Court that the respondent no.4 authority may be directed to consider the representation dated 13.02.2026 in accordance with law. 8. In view of such, this Court while disposing of the writ petition directed the respondent no.4 authority to initiate an appropriate proceeding under Section 26(2) of the said Act and after giving due notice both to the writ petitioner and the private respondent and also after giving a fair chance of hearing to the writ petitioner, the private respondent and/or any other stake holders, shall pass a reasoned order over the representation dated 13.02.2026 as submitted by the writ petitioner. 9. The entire exercise as indicated in the foregoing paragraphs is to be completed within 60 working days from the date of communication of server copy 4 of this order. Liberty is given to the learned advocate-on-record to communicate the server copy of this order to the respondent no.4 authority and the respondent no.4 authority, he is directed to act on the server copy of this order. 10. It is further made clear that in the event while passing the reasoned order, the respondent no.4 authority finds sufficient merit in the representation dated 13.02.2026 as submitted by the writ petitioner is directed to take all consequential action soon thereafter. 11. With the aforementioned observations, the instant writ petition is disposed of. 12. Before parting with, it is, however, made clear that while disposing the writ petition, this Court has not gone into the merits of the representation dated 13.02.2026 as submitted by the writ petitioner and, thus, all points are kept open for adjudication by the respondent no.4 authority 13. There will be no order as to costs. 14. Urgent Photostat certified copies of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties upon compliance of all requisite formalities. (Partha Sarathi Sen, J.)