The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Calcutta high court to expeditiously hear a petition by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) challenging the removal of the billboard at the party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s Kolkata office without being issued any notice.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, however, declined to interfere with the August 28 order of the high court, which declined to grant any interim relief to TMC, and noted that the issues raised by the party are still pending before the high court.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the TMC, said a petition was filed before the high court alleging that the party’s billboard was removed from its 9, Camac Street office by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation without issuing any notice.
“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. The court does not ask that question and says that now that the signboard has been removed, there is no cause of action,” Sibal said.
Sibal pointed out that the same building also houses other establishments whose signboards have not been removed. He informed the court that the petitioner has a registered lease and the earlier order should not come in the way of the high court deciding the issue of restoration of the nameboard raised by the party.
In his August 28 order, justice Raja Basu Chowdhury of the high court did not allow the TMC to restore the billboard, saying it would amount to deciding the case. “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 Chowdhury said.
The top court’s bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, said, “Observations are only tentative. We can ask the high court to take a call on your pending petition.”
The court disposed of the petition with a request to the high court to consider “expeditiously” all contentions raised by the AITC before the high court. “Since the high court is seized of the matter, and there are tentative observations in the order of August 28, parties are allowed to raise all contentions before the high court that will consider it expeditiously,” Monday’s order said.
The West Bengal government had opposed the TMC petition in the Supreme Court, saying the petitioner had the option to approach the high court’s division bench but directly approached the top court.
