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West Bengal Governor CV Anand Bose on Sunday took to his official X handle and said that no inquiry can be conducted against a Governor during their term of office regarding molestation charges levelled against him.
Posting on X, the West Bengal Governor said that Article 361(2) and (3) of the Constitution of India protects the President, Governors and Rajpramukhs. The post reads, "No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President, or the Governor of a State, in any court during his term of office and no process for the arrest or imprisonment of the President, or the Governor of a State, shall issue from any court during his term of office." He added further, "It is clear that the State machinery cannot set in motion any sort of criminal proceedings, whatsoever, against the Governor." Bose also wrote to Raj Bhavan staff and asked them to ignore any communication from the police regarding the matter. The Governor said that in any circumstances, all staff/employees, including part-time, temporary, DRW or those engaged in Raj Bhavan in any manner are hereby directed to ignore any communication from the police in this respect and refrain from giving any statement online, offline, in person, over the phone or in any other manner. The Trinamool Congress and Bose are in a standoff over a sexual harassment case that the TMC has flagged against him. Bose has denied the allegations saying 'Truth Will Triumph'. The West Bengal Governor further referred to the case of Rameshwar Prasad and Others (VI) v. Union of India and another, 2006 (2) SCC 1, which considered the scope of Article 361 of the Constitution and held that the Governor enjoys complete immunity. On the question of whether police can conduct an inquiry and collect evidence given the immunity enjoyed by the Governor under Article 361(2) and (3) of the Constitution of India, CV Anand Bose said, "Since the Governor has been granted constitutional immunity from any criminal proceedings being instituted or continued against him, it logically follows that the police cannot investigate/inquire into the matter in any manner whatsoever." "To say that the inquiry/investigation of the police could continue even during the tenure of the Governor though no court can take cognisance of the final report, would be in derogation of the objective and essence of Article 361 of the Constitution of India. Thus, given the immunity enjoyed by the Governor, the police are constitutionally barred from carrying out any kind of preliminary inquiry, registering a First Information Report," he added. (ANI)
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