KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary, to file affidavits in a contempt petition alleging violation of the court’s direction on blocking arterial roads during the party’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally in 2025.
The petitioner alleged contempt of the High Court’s May 2018 order, which had directed that public meetings or gatherings on thoroughfares must not cause a total blockade of the road in question.
A division bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Apurba Sinha Ray directed Mamata and Abhishek to file affidavits within the next four weeks stating their position over the allegation. The court directed the petitioner to file his affidavit in reply to the contention of the Trinamool leaders within the subsequent two weeks. The next hearing on the petition will be held August 17.
In 2018, a bench of the then Chief Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee, had directed that passage must be left on such roads for the movement of pedestrians and emergency vehicles.
Lawyer Srikanta Dutta, the petitioner, moved the contempt petition before the HC on June 19, claiming that the order was violated during the TMC’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally in 2025, causing blockage of arterial roads in the heart of the city.
This year police denied permission for holding the Martyrs’ Day rally in front of Victoria House. The Martyrs’ Day is held in protest against death of 13 Youth Congress activists on July 21, 1993 allegedly due to police firing during a ‘March to Writers’ Buildings’ agitation led by Mamata Banerjee, the then YC leader.