Supreme Court Probes Customs Officer’s Locus Standi to file PIL against Abhishek Banerjee’s Wife on 2019 Incident [Read Judgement]
Rujira Banerjee and her sister Maneka Gambhir were intercepted by the Customs Officials while arriving from Bangkok but the West Bengal Police intervened and prevented the search.
![Supreme Court Probes Customs Officer’s Locus Standi to file PIL against Abhishek Banerjee’s Wife on 2019 Incident [Read Judgement]](https://www.taxscan.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/suprem-court.jpg "Supreme Court Probes Customs Officer’s Locus Standi to file PIL against Abhishek Banerjee’s Wife on 2019 Incident [Read Judgement]")
The Supreme Court recently dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by customs officer Raj Kumar Barthwal, who had sought an investigation into an incident from 2019 at the Kolkata airport involving Rujira Banerjee, wife of Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, and her sister Maneka Gambhir. The incident in question occurred in 2019, when Rujira and Maneka were intercepted...
The Supreme Court recently dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by customs officer Raj Kumar Barthwal, who had sought an investigation into an incident from 2019 at the Kolkata airport involving Rujira Banerjee, wife of Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, and her sister Maneka Gambhir.
The incident in question occurred in 2019, when Rujira and Maneka were intercepted by customs officials upon arrival from Bangkok. Barthwal alleged that officials from the West Bengal Police obstructed customs officers from discharging their duties during the interception and attempted search.
Although a complaint had previously been lodged by the customs department, a police investigation reportedly failed to unearth any tangible evidence, and the matter was closed in a final police report dated September 24, 2020. Further, the Calcutta High Court had in June 2020 quashed summons issued under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 to both women.
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Represented by Suryaprakash V. Raju, Annam Venkatesh, Samrat Goswami, Chandra Prakash, Vivek Singh, C. P. Rajwar, Binay Kumar and V. B. Pandey, Barthwal faced immediate scrutiny from the Supreme Court about the petitioner’s locus standi to initiate this petition and the basis on which he had acquired knowledge of the events at the Kolkata airport.
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The Court was particularly concerned that it was not the Customs Department or the Union of India, but an individual officer who had moved the Court in his personal capacity.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Kunal Mimani, Prashant Alai, Suryaprakash V Raju, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Kanu Agrawal, Annam Venkatesh, Aagrima Singh, Mili Baxi, Jaideep Gupta, Udayaditya Banerjee, Shubhangi Pandey, Saday Mondal, Racheeta Chawla, Rishi Agarwal, Sampriti Bakshi and Riddhi Bose appeared for the Respondents.
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The Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan considering the circumstances of the issue, directed that the petitioner deposit ₹10 lakh as a condition to continue to uphold the case proceedings.
Faced with this directive and sustained judicial skepticism from the Apex Court, Barthwal withdrew the petition. The Court formally dismissed the PIL as withdrawn, while granting liberty to the Union of India or the Customs Department to pursue the matter through appropriate legal channels, if they chose.
To Read the full text of the Judgement CLICK HERE
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