Kolkata, Oct 15 — A court in Kolkata on Thursday directed Mahua Moitra, the Trinamool Congress-Mamata Lok Sabha member from Krishnanagar constituency in Nadia district of West Bengal, to immediately delete two derogatory social media posts made by her about the current West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal over the latter's role in the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise when he was the State's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
In the social media post, Moita described Agarwal as "Vote Chor (Vote Thief)".
Agarwal first served a legal notice to Moitra over the posts and subsequently filed a defamation suit against her demanding a libel compensation of Rs 10 crore.
The matter came up for hearing at a lower court at Alipore in South Kolkata on Thursday and at the end of the hearing the judge of the court said that Krishnagar Lok Sabha MP will not be able to share any new post on social media making any defamatory comments against the Chief Secretary and will also not be able to re-share any old social media post related to the same matter.
The court also said that the social media posts that Moitra made on October 3 and October 6 must be deleted within 24 hours of receiving the court order.
The Trinamool Congress-Mamata Lok Sabha MP will be given a notice to explain why the court will not uphold the ban on her comments.
The judge of the lower court also said that Moitra's posts not just criticised the SIR process but also accused the Chief Secretary of illegal acts as the then West Bengal CEO.
However,, the court added that the Krishnanagar MP was unable to present any suitable evidence in the court to support such serious allegations.
As a result, the court said that there were doubts about the legal basis of those allegations.
The court added that everyone had the right to discuss or criticise the SIR in the scope of public interest but behind that criticism, defamatory comments against any government official were not acceptable at all.
In that regard, as per the court's observation, Moitra's social media posts were objectionable and therefore she must delete the post within the next 24 hours.
Moitra gave a reaction to the court order on social media.
"I will be filing a vacating application to reinforce my right to call a 'Vote Chor' a 'Vote Chor'," the Trinamool Congres-Mamata Lok Sabha MP in a social media statement said while reacting to the court order.