PIL on ‘Adipurush’: Petitioner's counsel pulled up by court for lack of research

Kolkata, July 4 The division bench of the Calcutta High Court's Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanag and Justice Hirnamay Bhattacharya pulled up the counsel of a petitioner for filing a PIL seeking ban on 'Adipurush' in the state for approaching the court without proper research on the subject.

Justice Sivagnanam, especially, refuted the claims of the petitioner that all parties concerned have been served notice in the PIL and pointed out that some of the respondents have been missed out in the process of serving notice.

Justice Sivagnanam also observed that such deliberate misinformation provided to the court can result in a "shake" of confidence of the "bench" on the "bar". He also observed that such misinformation to the court will lead to a directive that no affidavit of service unless its contents and attachments are verified by the department concerned.

"Do not use this court to conduct a roving enquiry," Justice Sivagnanam told the petitioner counsel. However, even after all these, the division bench agreed to hear the PIL at a later stage.

Senior counsel of the Calcutta High Court Kaushik Gupta told IANS that misinformation provided in any affidavit of service is an unpardonable offense.

"As per certain sections of Indian Penal Code anyone providing wrong information in an affidavit of service can attract imprisonment up to six months," Gupta added.

On June 25, Debdeep Mondal, who is himself a Calcutta High Court counsel, filed the PIL seeking ban on the screening of 'Adipurush' in the state.

In the petition, Mondal’s counsel, Tanmay Basu, claimed that although the film has been inspired by the great Indian epic of Ramayana, in reality the events depicted in the legendary epic have been distorted in the movie. The petitioner has also accused the film director of mixing sexual innuendos with the theme of the movie. The counsel has also pointed out that not just in India; similar demands for ban on the screening of the movie have also been raised in Nepal.

A similar PIL demanding ban on screening of the movie has also been filed in the Rajasthan High Court. Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha filed an FIR at the Hazratganj Police Station at Lucknow recently. The All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban the screening of 'Adipurush'. The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have joined hands against the movie, demanding a ban and an apology from its makers.