Calcutta High Court dismisses PIL against BJP's 'Bangla Bandh'

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea against the 12-hour 'Bangla Bandh' called by the BJP since the petitioner was debarred perpetually from filing public interest litigations (PIL) before the court in a previous order.

Petitioner Sanjoy Das, who claimed to be a lawyer practising at the high court, sought that the bandh be declared illegal.

A division bench, presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam, dismissed the PIL, as the court in its previous order perpetually debarred Das from presenting any PIL.

The bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, in that order rejected Das's PIL, where it held that he had made false statements about himself in that petition, seeking a change of roster of a particular judge presiding over police inaction/overaction matters.

The bench also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on Das in connection with that petition.

Maintaining that the petitioner has abused the process of this court, attempted to intimidate the office of the chief justice and made false statements about himself, the court dismissed the petition with exemplary cost.

The statewide shutdown, which began at 6 am, was called by the BJP in protest against Tuesday's police action on participants of 'Nabanna Abhijan' or march to the secretariat, organised by the newly formed students' group Chatra Samaj over the rape and murder of the doctor at R G Kar hospital.