Kolkata: Calcutta High Court will hear the public interest litigation (PIL) clubbing multiple cases of egg pelting on individuals or public figures on Nov 27.Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge on Sept 23 directed the registry to “search out” petitions involving the same cause taken up and ordered them to be listed along with the PIL. The PIL brings out several issues in public interest, one of them being ‘egg pelting’ on individuals or public figures.“We are informed that there are several such petitions filed in this court on the same issue of egg pelting,” the CJ observed.This order was reported to Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya on Thursday by additional advocate general Rajdeep Mazumder during the hearing of Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra’s case regarding the extension of interim protection in a case of alleged hate speech.HC on Sept 1 had directed the Krishnanagar SP to provide protection to Moitra by deputing two police personnel whenever she entered her constituency to prevent egg-pelting and other forms of harassment allegedly perpetrated upon her.Moitra’s counsel Arka Nag submitted that incidents of egg-pelting and mob attacks occurred after the Sept 1 order during her constituency visit.The PIL sought intervention by the court in the “shocking, terrifying and heart-rending incidents of targeted public violence, mob lynching, and defamatory media and public trials against individuals associated with a specific political party, namely Trinamool Congress.”The PIL alleged that the prevailing law-and-order situation in Bengal is extremely alarming and deeply disturbing as the workers and associates of the political party are not safe. “They have been subjected to public humiliation and physical violence. Mobs have frequently thrown eggs, ink, and stones at these individuals. In severe instances, individuals have been unlawfully restrained, physically thrashed, paraded under duress, and subjected to grievous bodily harm by unruly mobs acting as self-appointed judges, juries, and executioners,” it was stated in the PIL.
