Alipore court bans Mahua Moitra from publishing defamatory content against West Bengal Chief Secretary

Trinamool Congress President Mahua Moitra. | Photo credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

A court in Alipore, Parganas South 24 district of West Bengal has banned Mamata All India Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra from publishing any defamatory posts against West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal in connection with the deletion of voters during the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls. Mr. Agarwal served as the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal and supervised the SIR before the assembly polls. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power, Mr. Agarwal was appointed as the Chief Secretary.

“Defendant (Mrs. Moitra), her agents, servants and all persons acting on her behalf are prohibited from republishing, publishing, retransmitting, sharing and/or repeating in any form and on any platform any defamatory statement against the plaintiff, including any statement in connection with the first post dated October 3, 2026 and the second post dated October 6, 2026 and the second post dated October 6, 2026.” “committed every illegality” that he was “specially liable”, said the order of the Civil Judge Senior Division 1st Court, Alipore, South 24 Parganas.

In its October 14 order, the court ordered the MP to delete “the first post dated October 3, 2026 and the second post dated October 6, 2026 from her account X ‘@MahuaMoitra'” within 24 hours of receiving the order.

In social media posts, the Krishnanagar MP used photographs of the chief secretary and labeled him as the chief architect of SIR, leading to the deletion of thousands of voters. On 9 October, Mr Agarwal sent a legal notice to Ms Moitra over the controversial social media posts against him, demanding an unconditional apology and ₹10 million as damages for the alleged defamation.

Ms. Moitra refused to delete the tweets. After the Alipore court’s order, the Krishnanagar MP said she would file a release petition to strengthen her right.

During the proceedings before the civil judge, Mr. Agarwal’s counsel submitted that as CEO, he had no authority to delete or list any name himself.

Published – 15 Oct 2026 22:58 IST