Not Filed Before Appropriate Court: Calcutta HC Quashes Defamation Case Against MLA Suvendu Adhikari
The Calcutta High Court has quashed the case of defamation against BJP MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) and leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari on the ground that the case was not filed before the competent court.
A Single Bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhuri said, “Without going into the merit of the case this Court fails to understand as to how the learned Chief Judge took cognizance of the offence in view of the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay’s case to the effect that a criminal case shall have to be instituted and tried before the competent Court of the learned Magistrate. This Court in CRR No. 1086/2022 has issued detailed guideline regarding constitution of such Court in the State of West Bengal and by virtue of two notifications dated 6th March, 2018 and 27th January, 2021 the special Court to try the Magistrate triable and sessions triable cases are set up in the State of West Bengal.”
The Bench observed that such a case is exclusively triable by the Special Magistrate or the Special Judge for the trial of cases relating to MPs and MLAs in the State of West Bengal.
Senior Advocate Sekhar Kumar Basu and Advocate Sourav Chatterjee appeared on behalf of the petitioner.
In this case, the Public Prosecutor, City Sessions Court had lodged a complaint before the Chief Judge, City Sessions Court alleging the commission of offence under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code by the petitioner by uploading certain statements on his Twitter handle regarding the detention of a bus on April 17, 2023.
The High Court in the above regard noted, “… the initial cognizance and the order of issuance of process is bad and I do not require even the assistance of the learned Public Prosecutor to quash the proceedings of Complaint Case No. 2/2023.”
Accordingly, the Court quashed the case pending before the Chief Judge and said that the complainant is at liberty to take back the written complaint and file the same in the appropriate court.
Cause Title- Suvendu Adhikari v. State of West Bengal
