Calcutta HC Stays Criminal Proceedings Against Amit Shah For 'Defamatory' Speech [Read Order]

The allegation against him in the FIR was that during the course of a speech, he said that "the Government of West Bengal will fall while counting process of the parliamentary election will be on" and that "'pujas' were not allowed to be organised in the State."

It was contended before the court that these statements are not defamatory and are only 'general statements', protected under free speech. Another point highlighted was that the defamation complaint was not filed by the aggrieved party. The criminal case was maliciously instituted only to prevent the present petitioner from campaigning in West Bengal for the ensuing elections, Shah stated in his petition.

The state resisted his plea contending that prima facie case is clearly made out against him and as an aftermath of the provocative speech, several persons were injured and properties damaged.

Justice Jay Sengupta observed: "It is indeed debatable whether the alleged utterances are objective enough or are capable of disseminating disharmony or inciting violence, much less amount to defamation. No individual or identifiable group is alleged to have been defamed."

The court said that two issues needs to be addressed in this case. One, whether the bar of Section 199 of the Code can be lifted by invoking Section 155(4) of the Code. Second, how Section 436 of the Penal Code could be added in the formal part of the First Information Report by the recording officer when the body did not contain such allegations.

Posting the case after two weeks, the bench ordered: "In view of the above discussions and considering the fact that investigation is going on in the other case started against the assailants and the perpetrators of the alleged violence, I direct that the impugned proceedings relating to the Contai Police Station Case No. 34 dated 29.01.2019 shall remain stayed for a period of four weeks from this date."

Read Order