Nadia Hooch Tragedy: Calcutta HC restrains Kailash Vijayvargiya from making comments against Abhishek Banerjee

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday restrained BJP National Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya from imputing that Member of Parliament and Trinamool Congress member Abhishek Banerjee had any role to play in the sale of illicit liquor which lead to 12 deaths in the Nadia Hooch tragedy last month..While passing the interim order in Banerjee’s favour, Justice Soumen Sen made some pertinent observations concerning the need to maintain decorum, even in politics. As noted in his order,.“In politics brick batting is not unknown. However, there is a necessity to maintain decency, decorum and propriety, more so, when the persons responsible for making such statements are elected representatives of the people and hold important positions in the society.“.It was also pointed out that citizens are allowed to criticise the administration if it fails to prevent such unfortunate incidents. However, the Court may have to examine the bona fides of the speaker, if disparaging statements are made against individuals to lower their dignity and reputation..“The death of persons due to consumption of illicit liquor is bound to evoke concern and criticism. It is open to a citizen to criticize the administration for not taking appropriate steps so as to prevent occurrence of such unfortunate incidents. The State Government has paid victim compensation. However, once an individual is selectively picked up and disparaging statements are made against the individual as the person responsible for such death with other allegations which would tend to lower his dignity and reputation, the Court is required to see whether there is a malice in the statement and there is any truth or justification in making such statement.”.After 12 persons died from consuming the illegal alcohol, Vijayvargiya publicly accused Abhishek Banerjee as being directly responsible for the same. In a series of statements that were broadcast on visual and print media, Vijayvargiya alleged that Banerjee was allowed to conduct such illegal activities owing to the protection offered by the ruling regime headed by his aunt, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee..Objecting to such reckless, false and defamatory statements, Abhishek Banerjee filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit in the Calcutta High Court. Inter alia, the Court was informed that legal notices sent cautioning against making such statements had only prompted Vijayvargiya to level more allegations against Banerjee,.When the matter was taken up by the Court, Vijayvargiya failed to appear before the Court to justify any of his allegations against Banerjee. This despite the suit having been moved on notice..In this backdrop, the Court passed the interim order in Banerjee’s favour, noting that a strong prima facie case had been made out that Vijayvargiya’s statements were defamatory and likely to unduly harm Banerjee’s reputation. The order states,.“The plaintiff is able to make out a strong prima facie case and the balance of convenience lies in passing a limited interim order since the refusal to pass any such order might cause irreparable injury to the plaintiff..Accordingly, the defendant is restrained from making any statement in relation to the plaintiff with regard to the death caused at Shantipur due to consumption of illicit liquor and to make an imputation that the plaintiff is involved in the illegal activities of sale of the illicit country liquor and realising money out of sale of such liquor..The defendant is also restrained from making same and/or similar statement as forming part of paragraph 35 of the petition which interalia reads: ‘Illegal Coal extraction, illegal alcohol, whatever illegal activities/businesses are being carried out in Bengal, whether Cow Smuggling, smuggling of arms, somehow or the other Abhishek is involved, his team is involved. He gets his people posted at borders and his business goes on.’“.The interim order will continue until January 31, 2019 or until further orders, whichever is earlier..Senior Advocates Jayanta Mitra and Ahin Choudhuri appeared for Banerjee, assisted by advocates Anirban Ray, Sanjay Basu, Samik Kanti Chakraborty, Piyush Agarwal and Soumen Mohanty..Read the order:.Feature image courtesy: Jagran