During the hearing in the defamation suit filed by Governor C V Ananda Bose against her, the CM’s counsel opposed issuance of an interim order to restrain her from making further comments in connection with the alleged incidents at Raj Bhavan.

Bose, represented by his lawyer, had sought to restrain Banerjee and two newly elected MLAs and TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh from making further comments in this regard.

A single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao reserved the order. During hearing, Banerjee’s counsel, SN Mookherjee, said the CM’s remarks were a fair comment on issues of public interest and were thus not defamatory.

Banerjee’s lawyer submitted she merely echoed the apprehensions of women over certain alleged activities in Raj Bhavan. The counsel said he was ready to file an affidavit containing the names of women who had expressed their apprehensions about visiting Raj Bhavan.

On May 2, a contractual woman employee of Raj Bhavan had made an allegation of molestation against Bose.

Appearing for Bose, counsel Dhiraj Trivedi submitted the issue started with the Governor inviting two newly elected MLAs — Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Hossain Sarkar — to take oath at the Raj Bhavan.

Stating they had written to him seeking to take oath at the Assembly from the Speaker or Governor himself, he submitted it did not mention any apprehension or fear as allegedly suggested later.

Trivedi argued since the oath-taking ceremony was part of an administrative activity, it was unjustified to link a different subject in the matter. Mookherjee argued the application was not maintainable and claimed that the court of Justice Rao does not have jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Mookherjee said Banerjee’s statement about the delay in oath-taking over the impasse as to where they would take the oath was also not defamatory.  —With PTI Inputs