Written by: Express News Service
2 min readKolkataSep 17, 2013 03:34 AM IST
First published on: Sep 17, 2013 at 03:34 AM IST
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to admit a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) challenging a Calcutta High Court order that had held the indefinite bandh called by the Morcha as unconstitutional.
The HC had termed the bandh as unconstitutional and illegal on August 14. Challenging the order,the GJM had filed a SLP in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court however,disposed of the petition and ordered that the PIL be heard by high court.
On August 14,a division bench headed by Chief Justice Arun Mishra had directed GJM chief Bimal Gurung to file an affidavit explaining why it should not be asked to compensate for the damage to public and private properties and the economic loss suffered by the state due to the bandh.
On Monday,the counsel for the GJM,told the Supreme Court that bandh was not called by Morcha. To this,the Supreme Court asked: “Who called the bandh and why did you come to the court?”
Advocate Ramaparasad Sarkar,who had filed the PIL in the Calcutta High Court,pleaded that the HC has directed that normalcy be maintained in the hills. “The bandh called by the GJM was illegal. Still,the GJM again called a bandh from August 24,violating the HC order,” he added.
Advocate Kalyan Banerjee,counsel of the state government,told the court that the act of the GJM was a punishable offence and bandh called by the party cannot be permitted under any law.
The petition will now come up for hearing in the high court on September 26.
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