Hearing on Bengal Governor's defamation suit against CM adjourned till Thursday

Kolkata, July 3 (IANS) The hearing on the defamation suit filed by West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, which was scheduled for hearing on Wednesday, has been adjourned by a day.

While the matter came up for hearing at Justice Krishna Rao's bench observed that the media houses whose reports were the basis of the Governor’s defamation suit against the Chief Minister should also be included as parties in the suit.

The matter will be heard again on Thursday. Besides the Chief Minister, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh and the two newly elected ruling party legislators namely Sayantika Banerjee from Baranagar and Reyat Houssen Sarkar from Bhagawangola have been named in the suit.

On Tuesday, without directly naming the Chief Minister, the Governor confirmed his filing the defamation suit for some slanderous comments allegedly made by her against him.

“Anyone who will hurt my self-respect, he or she will have to face the consequences. She is my constitutional colleague. I give her respect for that. But since my self-respect has been questioned I have filed a defamation case,” Governor Bose said at Siliguri on Tuesday afternoon

Earlier on June 28, the office of the Governor issued a strongly-worded statement reacting to some comments made by the Chief Minister about women being scared to go to Raj Bhavan.

On June 27, the Chief Minister made this comment while expressing her displeasure over the confusion regarding the oath-taking ceremony of two newly-elected party MLAs namely Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Sarkar.

She had backed their decision of not accepting the Governor’s invitation to go to Raj Bhavan and attend the oath ceremony there.

“They are right. Either the Governor should nominate the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker for administering the oath or he should himself go to the Assembly for that purpose.

“Why will the two newly-elected MLAs go to the Raj Bhavan? As it is, after what has happened at Raj Bhavan, women are scared to go there. I have received complaints,” the Chief Minister said on June 28.