A court in Alipore has restrained Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra from posting any defamatory posts against West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal in relation to the deletion of voters during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The Court also directed that posts alleged by Agarwal to be defamatory be deleted within 24 hours. In particular, it restrained Moitra from using terms such as 'vote chor' against Agarwal.
"The Defendant (Moitra), her agents, servants and all persons acting on her behalf are restrained from newly publishing, posting, reposting, sharing and/or repeating, in any form and on any platform, any defamatory statement against the Plaintiff (Agarwal), including any statement in connection with the First Post dated 03.10.2026 and the Second Post dated 06.10.2026, or any statement to the effect that the Plaintiff is a "Vote Chor", that he "committed every illegality", that he was "singularly responsible" for illegally disenfranchising voters, or that he acted at the behest of a "maalik"; provided that nothing in this order shall restrain fair criticism of the SIR or of any official decision," the Court directed.
The Court has given Moitra a liberty to file her written objection in the case filed by Agarwal or appropriate application for discharge, variation or setting aside the order.
The dispute stems from Moitra's social media posts calling Agarwal 'vote chor' (vote thief) on the social media platform X for allegedly illegally disenfranchising lakhs of voters during the SIR. Agarwal was previously the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in West Bengal.
Agarwal on October 9 had issued a legal notice to parlimentarian over the posts, demanding an unconditional apology and damages amounting to ₹10 crore for alleged defamation. He then moved the Court.
The Court has given Agarwal a liberty to communicate its interim order to X for takedown of the posts as per Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, read with Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, if Moitra fails to delete the posts within 24 hours.
The matter is listed for January 5, 2027 for further hearing.
[Read Order]