Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation seeking cancellation of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari’s candidature in the Bhabanipur constituency, which will go to polls in the second phase of West Bengal Assembly elections on April 29.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Adhikari is contesting against Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur constituency.
The petitioner sought cancellation of Adhikari’s nomination, alleging that he made remarks against the secular fabric of the nation.
However, the petitioner could not provide a satisfactory answer to the court’s query as to which provision of the Constitution the candidature should be cancelled under.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, presided over by Chief Justice Sujoy Paul, rejected the petition, refusing to admit it for hearing.
Adhikari’s lawyer, Billwadal Bhattacharya, claimed that the petition was filed with a political intent to affect Adhikari’s candidature from Bhabanipur. After hearing arguments from both sides, the High Court disposed of the Public Interest Litigation.
It may be recalled that on March 3, Adhikari, while participating in the Dol Yatra in Ballygunge, said that secularism should be eliminated.
A Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Calcutta High Court seeking cancellation of his candidature on the grounds that his remark was unconstitutional and provocative.
Petitioner Soumya Mondal said that, at a function organised on the occasion of the Dol Utsav on Sharat Bose Road in the Ballygunge area, Suvendu Adhikari raised the slogan ‘Secularism should be eliminated’ and said that atheism and secularism would not work.
Mondal claimed that secularism is the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution and accused Suvendu Adhikari of opposing the Constitution.
The first phase of elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly was held on April 23. As many as 152 constituencies went to the polls in the first phase.
Elections to the remaining 142 constituencies will be held on April 29. The vote count will be held on May 4.
(IANS)
