The judgment of the Calcutta High Court records the following account. On 14 March 2007, West Bengal Police opened prolonged, indiscriminate gunfire on villagers protesting land acquisition in Nandigram, killing 14 persons, injuring 162, and sexually assaulting several women. Acting on writ petitions and suo motu proceedings, the Calcutta High Court held the police firing wholly unconstitutional, unjustified under the CrPC, Police Act, 1861, or Police Regulations Bengal, 1943, and struck down Regulation 155(b) as unconstitutional. Rejecting the State's plea of sovereign immunity, the High Court ordered the State of West Bengal to pay immediate compensation of Rs. 5 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased, not less than Rs. 1 lakh to each injured person, and Rs. 2 lakh to each identified rape victim. The Court also ordered the CBI to conduct an independent investigation and initiate criminal proceedings against responsible officials. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.
This page documents a court-adjudicated case from the judgment and cited sources below. Findings are attributed to the court; this record does not add findings of its own.
How verification works →By judgment dated 16 November 2007 in W.P. No. 8596(W) of 2007, the Calcutta High Court (Coram: S.S. Nijjar, Pinaki Chandra Ghose, JJ.) returned findings adverse to the accused police personnel, and directed payment of compensation of Rs 238 lakh (Rs 2,38,00,000).
Compiled from the judgment and the cited sources. Findings are those of the court; this card adds none of its own.
The Calcutta High Court judgment dated 16 November 2007 is the concluded position shown in the cited sources.
Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.
Official finding: supports allegation.
Holding not recorded separately.
“The action of the police department to open fire at Nandigram on 14.03.2007 was wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified under any provision of the law.” (para 140)
The Calcutta High Court recorded adverse findings against police personnel and ordered Rs 23,800,000.
(Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass; skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl))
Corrections (0): No corrections recorded.
Review: Solo Staff combined review (one combined attestation) — not yet recorded.
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