SC orders status quo in defamation case against lawyer over sharing excerpts on Mamata Banerjee
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered status quo in a defamation case filed against BJP leader Koustav Bagchi, who is accused of sharing on social media excerpts from a book containing allegations about the alleged private life of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan issued a notice to the West Bengal Government on a plea filed by Bagchi against an order of the Calcutta High Court.
The High Court had dismissed his petition challenging a trial court order issuing him a summons in the defamation case. The dispute originated from a book first published in 2015, stating that the West Bengal chief minister married someone clandestinely.
It also published some other alleged details of her private life before she assumed the post of chief minister. Bagchi, an advocate, uploaded some pages of the said book on social media platforms and also allegedly made comments on the personal life of the chief minister in several television networks. A complaint was thereafter filed by the public prosecutor before the City Sessions Court, invoking Section 222(2) BNSS, 2023, (prosecution for defamation), alleging commission of an offence punishable under Section 356(2) BNS, 2023, (inquiry, trial or judgment in absentia of proclaimed offender) after obtaining statutory sanction.
The Sessions Court granted the applicant an opportunity of hearing under Section 223 BNSS, 2023 (providing the accused an opportunity to be heard), took cognisance and issued summons.
