Calcutta High Court extends stay order in Tapas Pal case till Monday

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court today extended till next Monday the stay on the execution of a single bench order directing registration of FIR against Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal for his hate speech after hearing both parties. A division bench comprising Justice Girish Gupta and Justice T Chakraborty heard the case and also watched a video clip of Pal's controversial comments.

The bench had yesterday granted a day-long stay after Kalyan Banerjee, a TMC MP and senior advocate, who appeared for the state, prayed for an interim injunction on Justice Dipankar Dutta's order. Justice Dutta had earlier ordered registration of FIR and transfer of the case to CID within 72 hours. Banerjee challenged the order, saying the source of the video clip of Pal's comment remains unknown.
"The entire speech is needed to be seen because words have to be read in a context. The full video is with nobody," he told the court.

The bench observed that if the state does not prosecute Pal, then no one on this earth can prosecute him. Pal, whose controversial remarks against women had sparked an outrage, on July 1 tendered an unconditional apology saying that in making such comments he has let down his constituency and the people of Bengal.