"Maintain Peace During TMC Martyrs' Day Rally, Ensure No Untoward Incident Takes Place": Calcutta High Court Directs State Govt

The Calcutta High Court has directed the State Police to ensure that peace and law and order is maintained during Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Martyrs' Day rally in Kolkata in which lacs of people are expected to gather.

The bench issued this order on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea moved by one Nabendu Kumar Bandyopadhyay, seeking a protective order from the Court by submitting that on account of the alleged provocative speech made by the Chief Minister of the State, there was an apprehension of violence during the rally.

The bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj however did not pass any fresh orders and rather directed the State authorities to follow the directions issued by the Court on June 13 and June 15, 2022, in the case of Niladri Saha vs. The State of West Bengal and Others.

Essentially, in Niladri Saha (supra) case, the Court was dealing with a batch of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions seeking the deployment of central paramilitary forces in West Bengal amid the protests against offensive remarks made against Prophet Mohammed by former BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal.

In that case, the Court had directed the State authorities to ensure that no untoward incident takes place and further directed that the State should seek help from central forces in case they fail to control the situation. 

Read more about the directions of the Court here: Prophet Row | Calcutta High Court Asks WB Govt To Assess Ground Situation, Call For Central Forces Before Situation Goes Out Of Control

Now, in the instant case, the petitioner (Nabendu Kumar Bandyopadhyay) submitted before the Court that the State's CM, Mamata Banerjee had made a statement inciting her party workers to display violence against the members of petitioner's political party (BJP).

It was the further case of the petitioner that there was great apprehension of violence as an attempt had been made to instigate a particular community to commit violence against the supporters of the petitioner's political party.

Court's observations

At the outset, the Court noted that it was not disputed that a rally was scheduled for 21st of July, 2022 on the occasion of Martyrs Day (Shahid Divas). The Court further noted that the utterance made by CM Banerjee about the Jihad against a particular political party was also not disputed.

In this view of the matter, the Court observed that its only concern was about the maintenance of peace and law and order during the gathering and the rally and its aftereffects. Therefore, the Court entertained the plea for the limited purpose to ensure that peace and law and order is maintained and issued the aforementioned order.

However, the Court did make it clear that it did not intend to analyze the politically motivated allegation in the petition and therefore, the Court did not consider the oral arguments of the petitioner made in that regard.

Case title - Nabendu Kumar Bandyopadhyay v. State of West Bengal and Others

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Cal) 272

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