Key Takeaways
- The Calcutta High Court affirmed that it cannot issue gag orders on media reporting.
- Rujira Banerjee sought court intervention to halt media coverage of her and her husband.
- The Enforcement Directorate summoned family members in connection with a cash‑for‑jobs probe.
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court has opined that it cannot stop media reporting on Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee, even as some reporting appeared to be of defamatory nature, court sources confirmed on Wednesday.
The matter was heard on Tuesday by the single bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, who opined that directing the media to stop such reporting on Banerjee was not expected in a democratic set-up of the country.
” Such an order would be as good as gagging the media, ” the Judge opined while hearing the case filed by Rujira Banerjee.
Court sources stated that the judge clearly said such gag orders on media reporting are not expected to be passed in a healthy democracy.
The Judge said a defamation case could be filed against misleading reports, and on finding that most of the news items produced in the court apparently were of defamatory nature.
The reporting appeared to be political propaganda and this court cannot pass orders on any political propaganda, the Judge said.
The single bench judge was hearing a writ filed by Rujira Banerjee, who was seeking a court intervention to stop some media houses from reporting on them in the CBI and ED probe in the alleged cash for jobs scam across the state.
During the probe the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found documents of Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd in which Abhishek Banerjee is reportedly the CEO and his wife, father Amit Banerjee and mother Lata Banerjee are among the directors of the company, which is under the scanner.
The ED has summoned Amit Banerjee and Lata Banerjee at the CGO Complex this week and they have submitted the documents to the probe agency, another source said on Wednesday.
The ED also summoned Rujira Banerjee to appear at the CGO Complex on Wednesday, sources added.
