High court stops Bengal govt’s anti-caa ads

A PETITIONER ASKED HOW BANERJEE, IN HER CAPACITY AS THE CM, COULD SAY IN PUBLIC THAT CAA WILL NOT BE IMPLEMENTED IN WEST BENGAL

KOLKATA :A division bench of the Calcutta high court on Monday passed an interim order stopping the West Bengal government’s anti-citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) advertisements

These television and online advertisements had been running for a week and showed chief minister Mamata Banerjee saying that people need not worry as she will not implement CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal

Hearing petitions that claimed that the taxpayers’ money was being used to fund the campaign, a division bench of Chief Jusice T B N Radhakrishan and Arijit Banerjee asked the state government to file a detailed reply to the claim

While the hearing was on, advocate general Kishore Dutta, representing the government, told the court that the advertisement had been taken off the air and internet The court passed the interim order till the next hearing on January 9

As many as four petitions relating to the advertisement on CAA and NRC have been filed at the Calcutta high court One of the petitioners even questioned how Banerjee, in her capacity as the chief minister, could declare in public that CAA will not be implemented in her state

On pleas about the law and order disruption as also damage to railway property in the eastern state due to the recent protests against the legislation, the court asked the railways to furnish a detailed report

The legislation, which got Parliament’s approval on December 11, seeks to fast-track citizenship for persecuted minority Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jain, Buddhists and Parsis from the three neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who have taken refuge in India before 2015 No Trinamool Congress leader has reacted to the high court order

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, had criticised Banerjee for opposing CAA and allegedly misleading people