Retired Justice AK Ganguly is unlikely to oblige those demanding his resignation as the chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission, friends and relatives said on Friday adding he was “closely watching how cooked up charges are used to suit a political agenda”. Curiously no FIR has been lodged in the case yet.
“He is not resigning” a family friend said adding “he is the best judge of his circumstances and knows how to handle it. He has taken legal advises.”
A senior advocate of Calcutta High Court and a former colleague of Justice Ganguly — who had of late earned the wrath of Mamata Banerjee Government for passing a series of adverse orders of human rights violations against it — sniffed a “political conspiracy hatched from Kolkata” fearing “the framing of Justice Ganguly might open the floodgates of similar victimisation of future judges who would dare challenge political establishments.”
A former Judge of Calcutta High Court wondered: “What will happen if some other person levels similar charges against a sitting judge or for that matter anybody holding a constitutional postIJ Will one be condemned without trial and forced to resign forthwithIJ”
He said the retired “Judge is not a novice and knows the consequence of his decision not to quit”. He also said that “the whole procedure fails the test of jurisprudence”. He also questioned “what guarantee the future lokpal will have against such character assassinationsIJ”
Incidentally, former lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had also earlier dismissed the charges against the former Judge insisting “I have known him for 30-35 years and do not believe that he might have committed such an act. He has a happy family life.”
However, the ruling Trinamool Congress leadership insisted on Justice Ganguly’s resignation, State Minister Firhad Hakim said, “No person should continue on a constitutional post with a tainted image. He should resign because the people have lost faith in him.”