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🇮🇳 India /Crime & Justice

Supreme Court Asks Calcutta High Court to Hear TMC Billboard Plea ‘Expeditiously’

From Hindustan Times · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • India’s Supreme Court declined to intervene in the Calcutta High Court’s refusal to restore a Trinamool Congress billboard removed from an office building.
  • The top court asked the high court to consider the party’s pending arguments expeditiously, including whether the Kolkata municipal authorities issued notice.
  • The West Bengal government opposed the petition, saying the party could have approached the high court’s division bench.

India’s Supreme Court has asked the Calcutta High Court to hear the Trinamool Congress’s challenge to the removal of a party billboard from its Kolkata office without notice.

The billboard identified the All India Trinamool Congress office at 9 Camac Street, a building that houses the office of party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Kolkata Municipal Corporation personnel removed it on August 27. The TMC says the action occurred without notice and has asked for the nameboard to be restored.

It is my building and I am operating from there. It is natural that I will put up my billboard. The high court should find out if notice has been issued to me.

· Kapil SibalThe TMC’s lawyer argued that the billboard was removed without proper notice.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant declined to interfere with the high court’s August 28 order, which denied interim relief. The high court had said that restoring the billboard at this stage would effectively grant final relief before the case had been decided.

Though the petitioner would insist for restoration of the name board, I find that it is too premature to seek such a prayer. The same would tantamount to granting of a final relief at an interim stage which is not permissible in law.

· Justice Raja Basu ChowdhuryThe Calcutta High Court explained why it would not order the billboard’s restoration at the interim stage.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the TMC, said the party operates from the building and holds a registered lease. He also pointed out that other establishments in the same building still have their signboards. “It is my building and I am operating from there. It is natural that I will put up my billboard. The high court should find out if notice has been issued to me,” Sibal told the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court said the high court’s observations were tentative and allowed the parties to raise all their arguments there. The top court disposed of the petition while asking the high court to consider the TMC’s contentions “expeditiously.” The West Bengal government opposed the case, arguing that the party had bypassed the high court’s division bench by approaching the Supreme Court directly.

Observations are only tentative. We can ask the high court to take a call on your pending petition.

· Supreme Court benchThe Supreme Court clarified that the high court’s earlier observations did not finally determine the dispute.
About this summary

Originally published by Hindustan Times in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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