The Supreme Court refused to hear on urgent basis a petition filed by West Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendhu Adhikari challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court allowing registration of FIR against him for allegedly making provocative remarks during the recently held West Bengal Panchayat elections.
The matter was mentioned before the Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul for urgent listing by Advocate Bansuri Swaraj.
The Bench refused to grant urgent hearing to the petitioner on the grounds that the matter was shown as listed on August 4.
Swaraj, however, kept insisting for advancing the hearing. The lawyer contended that a week would be a long time, which might put the BJP leader ‘precarious’ position.
She pointed out that the High Court has previously passed orders barring the registration of the FIRs against him and those orders were upheld by the Supreme Court.
“I was protected by the two orders of the High Court by which no further FIRs should be registered against me….This court upheld that…The High Court is effectively sitting on a review of this court now”, the counsel said. Justice Kaul however refused to advance the hearing from the already fixed date, August 4. But the judge assured that the matter will not be deleted from the list of August 4. “It is listed for 4th August, not to be deleted”, he said.
Adhikari has filed the present petition against the order passed by a division bench of the High Court on July 20, which held that the previous orders cannot be construed to mean a blanket bar on FIRs against him.