In a major relief to West Bengal CPI(M) secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose, the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday quashed the Calcutta high court (HC) order convicting him for the contempt of court for defying its ban on rallies in the metropolis in 2005.
“The special leave petition (of Bose) is allowed and the high court order is set aside,” said a bench of Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar while pronouncing the operative part of the verdict on Bose’s appeal.
However, the details of the judgement were not immediately available to the media. The HC had awarded three days’ jail sentence to Bose for committing “contempt of court” on March 31, 2005.
He was found guilty of defying the HC order banning strikes and rallies in Kolkata during the day between 8 am and 8 pm after the metropolis had witnessed a series of bandhs and strikes causing lot of difficulties to the common man.However, the apex court while admitting his appeal against the conviction had stayed the operation of the HC order on April 26, 2005.
The HC in its order also had said that apart from defying the court order, Bose was guilty of making “derogatory” remarks against the judiciary.