A metropolitan court in Mazgaon on Monday dismissed a complaint against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly disrespecting the national anthem during an event in the city.
The court dismissed the criminal case filed by Bharatia Janata Party (BJP) functionary Vivekanand Gupta, stating that no offence was made out against the Trinamool Congress leader.
Gupta, a functionary of the BJP’s Mumbai unit, alleged that the chief minister, while on a two-day visit to the city, on December 01, 2021, disrespected the national flag considering she did not stand when the national anthem was played at a function held at the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan auditorium in South Mumbai, where she was the chief guest.
He demanded that an FIR be registered against her under the Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act. Gupta further alleged that towards the end of the programme, she suddenly started singing the national anthem while sitting on her chair and later abruptly stood up and continued a few more lines and left the programme while the national anthem was still being sung.
Earlier this year, Banerjee had approached the sessions court for quashing the complaint. While deciding her plea, the sessions court had in March this year observed that not standing up while the national anthem was being sung or standing up but not singing the national anthem may be a disrespect to it, but not an offence.
“Undoubtedly, the complainant was not present in the said function. He has no personal knowledge about the event that was conducted on December 1, 2021. The only source of information for (the) complainant was news report relied upon by him. It is to be noted here that as per averments in the complaint itself, prominent people from various backgrounds had attended the said function. In the aforesaid factual scenario, it was mandatory on the part of the Metropolitan Magistrate to hold inquiry as per Section 202 of the CrPC,” the sessions court had said and remanded the matter for fresh adjudication.
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