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Authorities bound to follow the procedures laid down in the Highway Act to remove unauthorized construction on highway

Calcutta High Court: Disposing of the writ petition, a bench comprising of Ashim Kumar Roy, J formulated that to seek relief for encroachment on a highway, the competent authority have to follow the procedure embedded in the West Bengal Highway Act 1964.

In the present case, the petitioner is seeking  mandamus for the enforcement of the Order of Assistant Engineer (Roads) for removal of an illegal and unauthorized construction by the private respondents on the highway, which has not only caused a great inconvenience to the petitioner and his family restricting free ingress and egress from their residence, but also caused inconvenience to the free movement of the public. The Court relying on the contentions of the Counsel for the State, disposed of the writ and found that in this case the requirement of law has not been followed by the competent authority and directed the respondents to act in accordance with the procedure laid down in Section 8 and 10 of the West Bengal Highway Act, 1964, for grant of relief for an illegal encroachment on the highway. Ataur Rahaman v. State of West Bengal, W.P. No. 26365 (W) of 2013, decided on April 23, 2014.

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