Calcutta High Court rejects PIL on BJP's 12-hour strike in Bengal

Kolkata: A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday, rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate of the same court, Sanjay Das, opposing the 12-hour general strike called by the BJP in West Bengal.

The division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya have also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on the petitioner.

The division bench also reminded the petitioner about the principles and procedures that needed to be followed while filing a PIL.

To recall, earlier the same Sanjay Das had filed a public interest litigation opposing the allotment of cases relating to police excesses or police inaction to the single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha.

Then, the division bench of the Calcutta High Court expressed anguish over the purpose of that PIL on the grounds that the allotment of cases to different judges happens as per the “master of rosters”, which is revised from time to time and is the prerogative of the Chief Justice.

On Tuesday, pockets in West Bengal turned into virtual battlefields following clashes between the participants at the protest march and the police personnel. The police had to resort to massive lathi charges, firing of teargas shells and use of water cannons to disperse the protesting participants during the march at different places.

A total of 220 persons were arrested in this connection in addition to the 25 preventive arrests made earlier. The BJP called a 12-hour general strike in the state condemning the police action.

While the state government announced that all administrative measures would be adopted to restore normalcy on Wednesday, Das approached the Calcutta High Court with the public interest litigation in the matter on Tuesday evening, which was rejected outright on Wednesday.

The BJP has given the 12-hour shutdown call to protest the police action on the participants of the 'Nabanna Abhijan' (March to Bengal Secretariat) rally. The Nabanna march on Tuesday was called by youths as a mark of protest against the rape and murder of a woman doctor in the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital earlier this month.