B.N.BANERJEE, J. - (1.) IN this rule amongst other matters, I am called upon to decide who is the appointing authority of the petitioner, a typist, on probation, in the District Intelligence Branch, Sealdah Government Railway Police. It is strange that such, a doubt at all arises in the case of the petitioner!
(2.) SO as to understand the argument made on behalf of the petitioner it is necessary for me, in the first place, to examine the administrative set -up of the police in West Bengal. Under Regn. 4 of the Police Regulations, 1943, the State of West Bengal (excluding the city and suburbs of Calcutta) is divided into police administrative areas known as ranges consisting of a group of police districts; police districts again are divided into subdivisions, excepting that railway police districts are not normally so subdivided. Regulation 6 deals with branches of the police and reads as follows: Police officers stationed in West Bengal may be - (i) superior administrative officers, viz., the Inspector -General or a Deputy Inspector -General; or they may be attached to: (ii) the district police, (iii) the railway police, (iv) the Police Training College. (v) the Criminal investigation Department, which includes the intelligence Branch, or (vi) the Inspector -General's staff.
(3.) UNDER Regn. 7 (read with Section 4 of the Police Act, 1861), the administration of the police throughout the general police district in West Bengal (that is to say, West Bengal, with the exception of the city and suburbs of Calcutta) is vested in the Inspector -General. The administrative areas mentioned in Regn. 4 are, however, controlled by officers as mentioned below: (i) The range -a Deputy Inspector -General (ii) The district -a Superintendent ;