Calcutta High Court ordered the West Bengal govt to hand over all acquired land required for border fencing in 9 districts along the India-Bangladesh border to the BSF by 31st March 2026, citing national security concerns.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen issued the direction while hearing a public interest litigation on delays in fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal. The court noted that although the Central government has already paid compensation and completed acquisition in several cases, the land has not yet been transferred to the BSF for installation of barbed-wire fencing.
The court made it clear that electoral processes or administrative delays cannot be used as reasons to postpone the handover to the BSF.
Amid the continuing border crisis with Bangladesh, the West Bengal government has started the process of handover 356 acres of land to the Border Security Force (BSF) at the earliest so that the border guarding force can immediately start the process of completing the process of installing barbed fencing in those areas where fences have not been yet put up.
Instructions have already been sent from the state secretary of Nabanna to the district magistrates of the districts concerned which have international borders with Bangladesh, a senior official of the state government said.
The districts where the administrative heads have been sent the instruction include Cooch Behar and Malda in North Bengal and Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Nadia in South Bengal.
The border does not care about politics, elections, or ego. It only cares about national security. Delays are turning every second into a vulnerability. Every second counts.
