Anushka Mansharamani
Abhishek Banerjee is an Indian politician and a current Member of Parliament. He is also a member of the All India Trinamool Congress and was alleged to have given false educational information in his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha Elections in 2014.
The Delhi court set aside the criminal proceedings as the allegations against him were proved wrong.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (AACM) had passed orders against Abhishek Banerjee and had summoned him after a criminal complaint was filed against him by Sarthak Chaturvedi under section 125A of the Representation People Act, 1951.
According to the complaint filed Abhishek Banerjee had stated that he was a Master of Business Administration graduate from the Indian Institute of Planning and Management
(IIPM) in 2009 while IIPM at that time was not a recognised institution and had no power to issue the degree.
The order was passed by the AACM and Abhishek Banerjee challenged the order under Section 468(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the ground that the complaint was summoned very late and that there was an absence of territorial jurisdiction by the Delhi Court as the complaint was filed in Kolkata and the alleged false information was also in Kolkata.
Advocates PK Dubey and Dinesh Priyani representing Abhishek Banerjee contended that he never claimed that IIPM had issued or awarded him the degree but instead he had simply stated that he had completed his degree for the institution. He further stated that Sarthak Chaturvedi lacked locus standi as he was not a candidate in the elections and neither was he a voter of the Diamond Harbour Constituency, Kolkata.
The Delhi Court observed that any person can file a complaint under section 125A of the Representation People Act, 1951 however the court stated that the Delhi courts lacked the jurisdiction to take such a case up as the case was filed in Kolkata and there was no relation with the fact that Abhishek Banerjee became an MP in Delhi.
The court stated that
“There is no connection or nexus in filing the affidavit in Kolkata and the revisionist (Banerjee) being elected and becoming an MP, with reference to the applicability of Section 179 CrPC. The act of filing an affidavit is a single act which was complete when the affidavit was filed and if the averments in the affidavit are false, it would attract Section 125A, the moment it is filed before the Returning Officer of the concerned Constituency.”
The court further observed that the limitation period had lapsed as the complaint was filed after a year of the filing of the affidavit. The court observed no merit of the complaint and the Court, therefore, concluded that Abhishek Banerjee was not guilty of stating false educational information as it was a statement of fact.
The court also stated that the filing of nominations for the 2019 Lok Sabha election is a separate action and the two cannot be tied up as one and therefore the court did not recognise it as a “continuing offence”.
Therefore, the court set aside the cognizance and summons passed by the AACM against Abhishek Banerjee as there was no offence that had taken place under section 125A of the Representation People Act, 1951.