<span style="color: #222222;">The Supreme Court today refused to interfere with the Calcutta High Court order which put in abeyance the summons issued by the Customs Department against Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife Rujira Naroola. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The department had issued notice asking Naroola to appear before it for allegedly obstructing its officers from checking her baggage at Kolkata airport on her arrival from Bangkok on &nbsp;16th &nbsp;March last.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' The High Court had earlier directed the Customs authorities not to take any coercive steps against Naroola till &nbsp;31st July when it will take up for hearing the petition filed by her challenging the provision of the Customs Act under which the notice was issued to her on 26th March.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' The bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose did not agree with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's argument seeking stay of the High Court order.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The judges said Customs Department have to wait as the High Court has said it will examine the legality of summons issued under section 108 of the Act.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' A division bench of the High Court had directed the joint commissioner of Customs to extend the date of summons after July 31 to enable the single bench to decide Naroola's petition challenging the summons. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The single bench had asked Naroola, who is a citizen of Thailand, to appear before the Customs Assistant Commissioner in compliance with the summons, while asking the Central Government Authority to not take any coercive action against her.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Naroola filed a complaint with the NSCBI Airport police station on the same day alleging that she had been deliberately harassed and misbehaved with by the officials. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Customs authorities also filed a complaint before the NSCBI Airport police station stating that they were prevented from examining the baggage of Naroola and her companion Menka Gambhir, who Naroola said was her sister.</span><br />'' &nbsp;
News On AIR | July 3, 2019 5:27 PM
SC refuses to interfere with Calcutta HC order against Customs dept involving TMC leader's wife