A Mumbai court has dismissed a complaint seeking registration of an FIR against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly making statements that hurt religious sentiments and incited communal disharmony, citing absence of prior sanction from the competent authority.

The plea, filed in 2024 by a city-based lawyer, accused Banerjee of delivering repeated “hate speeches” intended to insult a particular community and provoke unrest. The complaint specifically referred to her remarks following the August 9, 2023, incident at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal, where protests broke out after the alleged rape and murder of an on-duty doctor. The premises were reportedly vandalized by a mob during the unrest.

Judicial Magistrate S.R. Nimse of the Girgaon Court, in an order passed last month, observed that offences invoked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita — including Sections 196 (promoting enmity between groups), 299 (outraging religious feelings), and 302 (uttering words with intent to hurt religious sentiments) — require prior sanction from the Central or State government under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.

Since no such sanction was presented with the complaint, the Court held that it lacked the legal basis to take cognizance of the alleged offences. Accordingly, the plea was dismissed