SC Issues Notice on Bengal Raj Bhavan Staffer’s Plea Challenging Blanket Immunity Granted to Guv

NEW DELHI:
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice on a plea filed by a woman staff member of Raj Bhavan in Kolkata challenging the blanket immunity granted to the Governor from criminal prosecution.

A Bench presided over by CJI, DY Chandrachud was hearing a writ petition filed by the complainant who had levelled sexual harassment charges against West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose but was left “remediless” due to immunity available to him under Article 361 of the Constitution.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing the petitioner, submitted that direction be issued to the police machinery to carry out the investigation in the case as gathering of evidence cannot be deferred indefinitely.

Asking the Attorney General of India to assist the court, the Bench, also comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, granted liberty to the petitioner to implead the Union government as a party to the petition.

Advocate Astha Sharma accepted the notice on behalf of the West Bengal government in the matter.

The petitioner has approached the top court challenging the blanket immunity granted to the Governor from criminal prosecution and sought framing of guidelines in respect of constitutional immunity enjoyed by the Governor rather than complete blanket protection.

Asking for a fair police probe into the alleged incident, she sought protection for herself and her family and sought compensation for loss of reputation.

It may be recalled that subsequent to the filing of the complaint by contractual woman staffer on May 2, Governor Bose had ordered Raj Bhavan staff to ignore any communication from the West Bengal Police.

The Raj Bhavan also directed the staff members to “refrain from giving any statement online, offline, in person, over the phone or any other manner”.

The notification mentioned that under Article 361 (2) and (3) of the Constitution, the state police cannot act in any manner to investigate any proceedings against a Governor during his term in office.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed by Kolkata Police to probe the alleged accusations against the Governor and had sought CCTV footage of the Raj Bhavan.

The Kolkata Police had sought the footage from the officer-in-charge of the police outpost within the Raj Bhavan.

The Governor, since the beginning of the controversy, had vehemently denied the accusations floated against him. He had described the allegation as an “engineered narrative” coined to gain electoral benefits.