Kolkata, Jun 19 (PTI) The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered serving notices to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee in a contempt plea over alleged violation of the court’s directive on blocking arterial roads during its July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally last year.
The petitioner’s lawyer, Srikanta Dutta, moved a division bench presided by Justice Arijit Banerjee, alleging contempt of the court’s 2018 order, directing that gatherings on thoroughfares must not cause total blockage of the road.
A division bench comprising the then Chief Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee had directed that a passage must be left open on such roads for the movement of pedestrians and emergency vehicles.
Dutta moved the contempt petition on Friday, claiming that the high court’s order was violated during the TMC’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally in 2025, causing total blockage of arterial roads at Esplanade, the heart of the city.
The division bench, also comprising Justice Apurba Sinha Ray, directed that notice be served upon Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The matter will come up for hearing on July 3, the court said.
The July 21 Martyrs’ Day traces its origins to July 21, 1993, when 13 Youth Congress workers were killed in police firing during a rally led by Mamata Banerjee at Esplanade during the Left Front regime. The Congress had declared the day as Martyrs’ Day in memory of those killed.
After Mamata Banerjee disassociated from the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress in the late 1990s, her party gradually took over the annual observance, holding massive rallies at Dharmatala every year. PTI AMR NSD
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