Kolkata: On Thursday, Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, went to the Supreme Court to argue against an order by the Calcutta High Court that would have allowed FIRs to be filed against him without first obtaining a court order.
The matter is scheduled to be heard by the apex Court on August 4.
The shield extended to him by a single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha was taken away on July 20 by the high court's division-bench of Justices Indra Prasanna Mukerji and iswaroop Chowdhury.
As soon as the shield was taken away, the state police filed a FIR against Adhikari for inciting violence during the recent panchayat elections.
According to the police, Adhikari was responsible for an incident involving ballot boxes, therefore a FIR was filed as a result.
The police showed a video in which Adhikari can be heard saying, "If there is any incident of rigging and false voting, just throw the ballot boxes in the ponds," during a campaign event.
The division bench has however, maintained that that in case of any coercive action like arrest the police will have to take permission from the court.
“Police can take action after examining the complaints filed and then file FIRs. However, the FIRs should not be filed just for the sake of harassment,” Justice Mukerji observed.
In the case of a complaint being filed against Adhikari, the investigating police officials will conduct an investigation and prepare a report as per the order.
That report will have to be forwarded to the office of the state director general of police and the latter will again submit that report to the court.
Adhikari can then only be arrested if the court gives permission to do so.—Inputs from Agencies