Calcutta High Court restrains Mamata Banerjee from making defamatory statements against WB Governor CV Ananda Bose

The Calcutta High Court has temporarily restrained the West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee and three others from making any defamatory or incorrect statements against Governor CV Ananda Bose..Justice Krishna Rao passed the order on an interim application moved by Governor Bose in the defamation suit filed by him against Banerjee, two elected members of the West Bengal State Legislative Assembly and a leader of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).Bose had moved the High Court after Banerjee had made a statement that women no longer felt safe to enter the Raj Bhavan in West Bengal due to recent allegations against the Governor..The Court said that Bose is constitutional authority who cannot counter the personal attacks being made by Banerjee and other TMC leaders against him by using social media platform. It also observed that the right to freedom of speech and expression is not an unfettered right in the garb of which defamatory statements can be made to tarnish the reputation of a person."This Court if of the view that in appropriate cases where the Court is of the view that the statements have been made in reckless manner in order to cause injury to the reputation of the plaintiff, the Court would be justified in granting injunction. If at this stage, an interim order is not granted it would give the free hands to the defendants to continue making defamatory statements against the plaintiff and continue to tarnish the reputation of the plaintiff," it added..The Court thus restrained Banerjee and others from making any defamatory or incorrect statement against Bose "by way of publication and on social platforms till 14th August, 2024.""In the present case, admittedly the plaintiff is a Constitutional Authority. The allegation made against the plaintiff is pending before the appropriate Court but even, paper publication is made by making allegation against the plaintiff. Considering the above circumstances, this Court finds that the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case and balance of convenience are in favour of the plaintiff and at this stage, an interim order is not granted and the defendants are permitted to continue making defamatory statement against the plaintiff, the plaintiff will further suffer irreparable loss and injury of his reputation.".Governor Bose had told the Court that Banerjee and other TMC leaders were make false and frivolous allegations against him and have exposed him to hatred, contempt and ridicule.In response, CM Banerjee's counsel submitted that she will justify her stand by placing on record the documents on the basis of which she had made the statements. "The incident of Raj Bhavan is already on public domain and as such it cannot be said that the said articles are defamatory," the Court was told.It was also argued that CM Banerjee had made fair comments on issue of public interest and thus the publications were not defamatory. "She will disclose the names of the women, who expressed their apprehension to go to Raj Bhavan," the Court was told..The matter will be next heard on August 14..Advocates Dhiraj Trivedi, Shailendra Kr Mishra, Rajdeep Majumdar, Moyukh Mukherjee, Sushil Mishra, Amarjit Dey, Yashashwi Sundariya, Navneet Mishra, Sunil Gupta and Arpit Agarwal represented Governor CV Ananda Bose.Senior Advocate SN Mookherjee with Advocates Anirban Ray, Piyush Agarwal and Shrivalli Kajaria represented the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.Senior Advocates Kishore Dutta, Jayanta Kr Mitra and Dhruba Ghosh with Advocates Sanjay Basu, Amit Kr Nag, Debjyoti Das, Rajarshi Dutta, Ayan Chakraborty, Dhruv Chadha and Dhilon Sengupta represented other defendants. .[Read Order]