Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday questioned the maintainability of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, observing that such pleas were increasingly being used as a “special tool or weapon”.A division bench of acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty questioned the “intent” behind the petition. “Should the court listen to whatever anyone says? Why should this be accepted as a PIL?” the bench asked the petitioner.The PIL concerns a speech delivered by Banerjee on June 2 on the cross-border murder of Bangladeshi activist Sharif Osman bin Hadi. Her remarks led to multiple FIRs alleging sedition, violations of the Official Secrets Act and actions compromising national security. Petitioner’s counsel Avratanu Sarkar argued that the former CM’s comments went beyond hate speech and posed a threat to India’s sovereignty and foreign security interests.TMC counsel, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, questioned the basis of the plea, asking how incidents in Bangladesh could compromise India’s internal security and pointing out that no evidence of an Official Secrets Act violation had been presented. Additional advocate general Rajdeep Mazumder said police found the petitioner was not present at the venue and no criminal activity occurred there.The HC also cited the provocative speech case involving late TMC MP Tapas Pal, where police inaction was similarly questioned—a ruling previously presided over by ACJ. The matter will next be heard on Sept 14.
