The Supreme Court on Friday decided to overturn the order of the Calcutta High Court, which allowed the West Bengal Police to register an FIR against BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari based on a complaint accusing him of promoting enmity between different groups. The bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, noted that the High Court should have given Adhikari a chance to present a counter affidavit before issuing the interim direction in the July 20 order, reported news agency PTI.
The SC was hearing Adhikari's plea, challenging an order of the Calcutta HC allowing the registration of FIRs against him for allegedly making provocative remarks during panchayat elections in West Bengal.
The Supreme Court requested the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to re-examine the case and revoked the order of July 20. This decision came in response to an appeal filed by Adhikari challenging the July 20 order passed by a division bench of the high court.
Earlier, a single judge of the high court, in orders issued in September 2021 and December 2022, had ruled that no FIR could be registered, and no coercive actions could be taken against Adhikari, who serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.
The July 20 order of the division bench had dealt with a plea accusing Adhikari of committing an offence under section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which pertains to promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.
The division bench had directed the petition to be treated as a complaint to the police authority, and the state police were instructed to carefully examine whether the acts described in it disclosed any offence under section 153-A of the IPC. If they found sufficient grounds, they were to register the First Information Report (FIR) under section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
According to legal news website Bar & Bench, senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, who appeared for the writ petitioner, said: "Look at the egregious nature of the December 8 order. [Suvendu Adhikari is the] only man in the country who cannot be arrested as of now. Look at the hate speeches being delivered."
"The single-judge bench of Calcutta HC is not vacating the order. So this man is roaming free, he's not listening to anyone. The police can't be approached," Gupta was quoted as saying. To this, CJI DY Chandrachud said: "He's not even given one day to file the reply and the order is passed."
In the interest of justice, please tell us if the 8th dec order is correct... CJI: The correctness of those orders is not being considered before us right now
(With inputs from PTI.)