TMC MP Mahua Moitra moves Supreme Court alleging eviction from circuit house

TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Monday moved the Supreme Court alleging that district administration officials in Nadia, West Bengal, evicted her from a circuit house despite her being allotted a room at the state-owned property. The top court refused urgent listing of the matter.

The incident in her constituency Krishnanagar happened late at night, Moitra's counsel told a Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.

Her lawyer said, "The matter requires an independent investigation. This has happened despite the high court already having passed a protective order. I am only praying for listing on an early date because this involves an important constitutional issue.”

On the night of August 14, Moitra claimed in a social media post that a large crowd had gathered outside the circuit house, shouting “Jai Shri Ram” slogans after she refused to leave the premises.

She wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking his intervention in the Nadia district administration's alleged attempt to force her to vacate a circuit house after she was initially allotted a room at the state-owned property. The Krishnanagar MP had also threatened to move court over the alleged harassment.

Moitra, who had moved into the circuit house in Krishnanagar for an overnight stay following a Parliament session, asserted that as an MP she was entitled to stay there but was pressured by the district authorities to move out in the middle of the night with the intent to harass her.

She claimed in her letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker that nobody conveyed anything to her when she made the booking and no one informed her about the booking embargo when she checked in.

The MP asserted that the premises, opposite the bungalows of both the district superintendent of police and the district magistrate, are supposed to be a secure area “where no crowds can gather, let alone a lynch mob”.