The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed police authorities to ensure the safe return of any citizen illegally thrown out of their home, shop or property during the post-poll violence in West Bengal [Sirsanya Bandopadhyay Vs Union of India].A Division Bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen said that police authorities must strictly maintain law and order at the ground level.“In the interest of justice, it is observed that it shall be lawful for the police authorities to strictly maintain law and order at the ground level. The police shall also ensure that if any citizen irrespective of his/her party affiliation is illegally thrown out of his shop/house/property etc. due to post poll violence, he/she shall be given a safe return to his shop/house/property etc,” the Court ordered..The Court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate Sirsanya Bandopadhyay, son of TMC MP and Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay.The matter gained attention after former West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee also appeared before the High Court as a lawyer in the case and requested the Court to protect the people of Bengal.The Bar Council of India has sought for Mamata Banerjee's enrolment details. .Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay, appearing for the petitioner, argued that several persons and properties were targeted because of their political affiliation, reserved community, gender or religious background. The Court was also told that some persons had lost their lives.The petitioner sought protection for persons allegedly driven out of their houses and properties. He also submitted that police must preserve CCTV footage and video recordings.Bandopadhyay further said that another PIL relating to earlier post-poll violence had already been referred to a five-judge Bench. He urged that the present matter also be placed before the same Bench.He also submitted that a supplementary affidavit would be filed to highlight alleged illegal demolitions and “bulldozer action” that transpired in the State after Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the State..Additional Solicitor General Asok Kumar Chakraborti, appearing for the Union of India, raised a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the PIL. He submitted that the petition was filed by an advocate and that the necessary averments for entertaining a PIL were missing.He also argued that if the petitioner wanted to rely on additional arguments, the proper course would be to file an amendment application and not use a supplementary affidavit..Senior Advocate Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi, appearing for the State, also questioned the maintainability of the PIL. He submitted that the necessary averments were missing, that no complaint by the petitioner had been annexed and that the allegations were ambiguous and bald.However, the State also submitted that it would take strict action against persons who violated the law, if any such violation had taken place..The Court permitted the State to file its counter-affidavit within three weeks. The petitioner was given two weeks thereafter to file a reply.The Bench clarified that the question of maintainability of the PIL would remain open.It also allowed other respondents to file their replies within the same time.On the request to place the case before the five-judge Bench, the Court said that the issue would be considered after exchange of pleadings..The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay and advocates Mamata Bandopadhyay, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Pramiti Bandopadhyay, Arka Kumar Nag, Tirthankar Dey, Deboleena Ghosh, Rahul Kumar Singh, Ratikanta Pal, Shrobona Sengupta, Danish Farooqui, Sneha Sarkar, Kaushik Bandyapadhyay, Anit Das, Arijit Ganguly, Ashish Dutta and Samirul Sardar..Advocate Anamika Pandey appeared for the Election Commission of India..State was represented by Senior Advocates Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi and Kallol Mondal with advocates Amajit De, Brajesh Jha, Atanu Basu, Srijit Chakraborty, Sunit Mishra, Amitava Roy, Saibal Acharya, Swapan Kumar Pal, Debapriya Chatterjee and D Ghosh..Union of India was represented by Additional Solicitor General Asok Kumar Chakraborti with advocates Rashmi Bothra, Arijit Majumdar and Shreyashi Sarkar..[Read Order]
