KOLKATA: Setting aside the earlier order of the Calcutta High Court’s single-bench giving Suvendu Adhikari protection from FIRs against him, a division bench on Thursday allowed Bengal police to lodge complaints against the Leader of Opposition allegedly for making provocative statements during the recently concluded panchayat polls.
The high court’s order on Thursday said that an FIR can be lodged by the police if they have proper information. “The police can act as per the law,” said the division bench. The court, however, restricted police from taking any coercive action against Adhikari without permission.
On December 22, Kolkata High Court Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had ordered a stay on 17 FIRs against Adhikari and restrained the police from registering any fresh FIR against him. The BJP MLA from Nandigram had alleged that the FIRs were falsely framed against him.
The division bench of Justices Indra Prasanna Mukherjee and Biswarup Chowdhury, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), allowed the police to act against Adhikari. The PIL sought the court’s intervention into the allegations of provocative comments made by Adhikari and demanded investigation if the complaint is admissible.
While passing the order, the division bench said that according to Article 361 of the Constitution, only the President of India and the Governor are protected from criminal cases and the explanation of placing Adhikari above the President and Governor was not acceptable.