Bombay HC Refuses to Grant Any Relief to Mamata Banerjee in National Anthem Case

GG News Bureau

Mumbai, 29th March. The Bombay High Court today denied West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee any relief in a complaint seeking action against her for allegedly disrespecting the national anthem at a 2022 event here.

A single bench of Justice Amit Borkar dismissed Mamata Banerjee’s application challenging a sessions court order from January 2023 remanding the case to the magistrate’s court for enquiry and summons issuance.

Banerjee argued in her application that the sessions court should have quashed the entire complaint rather than just the summons.

However, Justice Borkar noted that the sessions court’s order was illegal and that the HC did not need to intervene.

In March 2022, a magistrate’s court summoned Mamata Banerjee on a complaint filed by activist Vivekanand Gupta alleging that during a public function at Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium in Cuffe Parade in Mumbai, Mamata Banerjee began singing the National Anthem while sitting, then stood up and sang two verses before abruptly stopping and leaving the venue.

The summons had been challenged before the special court by West Bengal’s Chief Minister.

In January 2023, Special Judge RN Rokade overturned the magistrate’s summons on procedural grounds and asked the magistrate to reconsider the complaint.

Banerjee challenged this order in the high court, claiming that the summons should have been quashed rather than directing the magistrate to reconsider.

In his complaint, Gupta claimed that Mamata Banerjee’s actions amounted to an insult and disrespect to the national anthem, and thus they violated the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act of 1971.

He had filed a complaint at the Cuffe Parade police station, but after the police failed to take action, he went to the court of the metropolitan magistrate.