In a bizarre development, the Trinamool Congress on Friday sought the transfer of a case related to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s election from a designated Calcutta High Court judge’s bench mentioning his past alleged saffron leanings and speculating over his “possible” neutrality while passing a judgment in the case.
Posting a picture where the said Judge is seen attending a BJP meeting as a former advocate of the Calcutta High Court TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien tweeted, “Who is that person ‘circled’ in both pics? Is he Justice … of Calcutta High Court? Has he been assigned to hear the Nandigram election case? Can the judiciary sink any lower?,” letting a large number of legal luminaries from Kolkata to wonder whether the Bengal ruling party leaders knew “ABC of how the judiciary runs,” and whether “the corridors of judiciary should be kept away from dirty politics.”
The Chief Minister had on Thursday filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court challenging the election of Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram seat from where he defeated Banerjee by a wafer-thin margin of 1,900 votes.
In her petition the Chief Minister doubted the neutrality of Election Commission officials in letting Adhikari go off with the victory badge. Earlier she had claimed that an EC official was coerced by Adhikari’s men to fudge the counting process and declare him the winner.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh went a step ahead of O’Brien demanding the transfer of the case from the said Judge’s bench. “We do not have anything personal against the honourable Judge … but as things stand today and going by his past political affiliations we are sufficiently apprehensive of the fate of the case … In such a case the honourable judge should by himself release the case from his court or the case should be transferred to some other judge’s bench.” Before he took up his present assignment the stated judge had been the additional solicitor general of India.
Meanwhile, the hearing of the case was deferred till next Thursday.
Reacting to the TMC’s allegation senior advocates of the High Court including Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member said “if the picture referred to pre-dates the judge’s appointment as a judicial officer then there is no reason to question his neutrality … legally the demand to remove the case from his court holds any water.”
Reacting to the issue Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said “the question that is being raised by the Trinamool Congress can also be raised when you talk of other such constitutional posts as the Speaker of a House … can you legally challenge the neutrality of the Speaker … this is simply making a fuss by denigrating the status and prestige of the judiciary.”