Priyanka Sharma allegedly posted a morphed image of Ms. Banerjee on social media.

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a contempt notice to West Bengal for keeping BJP Yuva Morcha leader Priyanka Sharma behind bars overnight despite its order on May 14 to release her immediately on bail.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi issued the notice returnable in four weeks against the State.

It has thus and carried out in action what a Vacation Bench of the court led by Justice Indira Banerjee threatened on May 15 when the latter heard that Ms. Sharma had not yet been released by the State authorities despite the specific order of the court.

Ms. Sharma was arrested and sent to 14 days of custody for allegedly posting a morphed image of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on social media.

The court called her arrest “prima facie arbitrary” in the first place. However, on May 14, while granting Ms. Sharma bail, the Vacation Bench asked her to apologise for the “meme”. The apology was not a condition for her release, though.

But the next day, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul for Ms. Sharma informed the Vacation Bench that the State chose to defy the judicial order of her release. He said Ms. Sharma was not released from jail on May 14. Her lawyers, who went to secure her release, were told off by the jail authorities. The latter had even asked them to either produce certified copies of the bail order or approach the local court for her release.

Counsel for West Bengal tried to placate the court, saying the jail authorities were merely following the jail manual. “A Supreme Court order for immediate release has precedence over a jail manual,” Justice Banerjee had shot back at the lawyer.

Mr. Kaul also informed the court that the police had filed a closure report in the case of criminal defamation foisted against Ms. Sharma. The report was filed on May 13, but the information was not disclosed to the apex court by the government during the May 14 bail hearing.

Ms. Sharma had shared on Facebook a photo in which Ms. Banerjee’s face was photoshopped on to actor Priyanka Chopra’s picture from the MET Gala event in New York.