The Calcutta High Court in the case Suvendu Adhikari v. State of W.B observed and has stated that the initial cognizance and the order of issuance of process is bad, wherein the said court quashed the case of defamation filed against by a Public Prosecutor against the BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
The bench headed by Justice Bibek Chaudhuri in the case stated that the said court fails to understand even without going into the merits of the case as to how the learned Chief Judge took cognizance of the offence in view of the decision taken by the Supreme Court in the case Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay’s in order to the effect that a criminal case shall have to be instituted and has to be tried before the competent Court of the learned Magistrate.
In the present case, the revision plea was moved before the court for quashing the defamation case filed against Adhikari, the leader of the opposition and MLA.
It has also been noted by the said court that the Public Prosecutor, City Sessions Court has lodged a complaint before the Chief Judge, City Sessions Court wherein it has been alleged that the commission of offence as stated under Section 499 and Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
The court in the case observed that the said case is exclusively triable by the learned special Magistrate or the learned Special Judge for trial of cases wherein the case relates to MPs and MLAs in the State of West Bengal.
Further, the bench headed by Justice Chaudhari in the case observed and has stated that the High Court issued detailed guidelines in the case Dr.Nirmal Maji v. Dr.Kunal Saha with regards to the constitution of such (Special) Court in the State of West Bengal and by virtue of two notifications dated 06.03.2018 and 27.01.2021 the special Court to try the Magistrate triable and sessions triable cases are set up in the State of West Bengal.
Accordingly, the court observed that the complaint is pending before the learned Chief Judge, City Sessions Court, Calcutta is being quashed and the complainant in the case is at the liberty to take back the written complaint and in order to file the same in the appropriate Court.
The counsels, Sr. Adv. Sekhar Kumar Basu and Advocates Sourav Chatterjee,Rajdeep Mazumdar,Mayukh Mukherjee,Soumya Nag,Aditya Tiwari,Namrata Chatterjee appeared for the petitioner.