The Calcutta High Court on February 22 asked the West Bengal government to consider rebranding a lioness named after the Hindu goddess Sita. The lioness is currently resident in a State zoo.
The single judge Bench of the court’s Jalpaiguri circuit also directed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had complained that the animal’s name offended Hindu sentiments, to reclassify its plea into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) so that it can be placed before the regular bench of the High Court.
The lioness, along with a lion named Akbar, was brought to West Bengal’s Siliguri Safari Park from Tripura’s Sepahijala Zoological Park on February 13, as part of an animal exchange initiative. The animals had already been named before they were transferred to Siliguri, according to the West Bengal Forest Department.
‘Why create more controversies?’
“Our State is suffering from various controversies... right from appointment of teachers to other controversies... Why do you want to create more controversies by naming a lioness after Sita,” observed Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya who orally asked the Additional Advocate General (AAG) Debjyoti Choudhary, representing the State, to take a prudent step to avoid this controversy.
The AAG responded that the State was considering renaming the animal.
During the hearing, which was livestreamed on YouTube, the VHP said that the name of the lioness has hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindu community and could be termed blasphemy. Its plea also objected to the lewd manner in which the pair of lions, named Akbar and Sita, were represented in the Bengali media.
Animals named in Tripura
“I was thinking last night whether any animal can be given a name after a god or mythological heroes or freedom fighters or Nobel laureates... Whether we can name a lion after Swami Vivekenand or Ram Krishna Dev?” the judge orally observed in the court. He added that he was also unhappy that the lion had been named after a very successful and secular Mughal king.
He asked the AAG if he would name his pet dog after any Hindu god or goddess, or a Muslim prophet.
However, the AAG pointed out that the animals had been named by the authorities in Tripura. “Milords, it was done by Tripura not West Bengal. These animals were born in 2016 and 2018. For five years, no one challenged these names, but once they came to West Bengal, they started this controversy,” Mr. Choudhary said.
Justice Bhattacharyya responded, saying that the State of West Bengal has always shown the path to the rest of the country.
‘Reclassify petition as PIL’
“The religious sentiments of citizens of our country who belong to a particular religion have been hurt... Therefore, it appears that the personal rights of the petitioners is not in breach. Rather, petitioners have espoused the cause of a greater section of people of our country who belong to a particular religion. Therefore, the writ petition in its present form is not maintainable... The writ petition can be reclassified as a PIL and accordingly the leave is granted,” the court said, directing the registry to transfer the matter to a different bench once a PIL is filed.
“Please don’t name any animal after a Hindu God, Muslim prophet, Christians, Nobel laureates, freedom fighters, etc. Generally, those who are revered and respected, their names shouldn’t be given,” the court added.
