A day after the Calcutta High Court equated some members of Bengal’s political executive with goondas, a section of the State Cabinet reacted sharply confronting the judge concerned with a harsh prose triggering a controversy of sorts.
The State’s high-profile Transport Minister Madan Mitra on Wednesday stopped short of calling upon the judge to substantiate his observations and wondered whether his remarks were powered by personal experience of the past life. He was joined in his tirade by veteran Trinamool Congress leader and senior most Minister Subroto Mukherjee who called the judge’s remarks defamatory.
“In this life one is a judge and not a Minister so it could well be a possibility that he was a Minister in the past life and remembers his experience even in this life,” Mitra said in an acerbic remark adding “if any judge calls the Ministers goondas then one must substantiate one’s observations with definite evidence.” Justice Sanjib Banerjee who was hearing a writ petition by Durbar Mahila Samiti (an organisation of sex workers) which had been denied permissions to raise a Durga Puja pandal at public place wondered how the State Government was ‘sitting idle’ even as the puja organisers patronised by the high and mighty were bending rules.
He said the rules were not same for the poor and the powerful and questioned the way how scores of Durga Pujas were organised by blocking important thoroughfares. Raising specific questions about the Ekdalia Evergreen club in South Kolkata patronised by Subroto Mukherjee the judge asked the Government pleader as to what the rule was for such puja organisers.
“The city is becoming unbearable. Roads are blocked. One can’t drive during the pujas. The powerful can lobby hard and get permission for the puja while the poor are being discriminated against,” Justice Banerjee remarked asking “what is the rule for Ekdalia EvergreenIJ Some Ministers are behaving like goons. The State administration is sitting idle.”
The Judge asked the Police Commissioner to file an affidavit before him submitting the rules and parameters used to grant permission to organise Durga Pujas. Mukherjee who said that his puja had a 70-year history wondered “what prompted the judge to make such observation” iterating “it is defamatory and we cannot do anything about it as it comes from a Judge.” He used to organise the pujas even when he was not a Minister he said, adding “Even during Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s regime when I was not a Minister I used to get permission,” he said.
Mitra was more attacking when he wondered whether there was any Constitutional provision to call Ministers goondas. “I don’t know whether the Constitution allows one to call the Ministers goondas,” Mitra fumed wondering “whether any one has the information about the Ministers extorting money or involved in goondaism. One must substantiate the charges one brings against any person.”
Reacting to Mitra’s statements, former Kolkata Mayor and senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya said, “his remarks only substantiate the Judges observations.” Bengal has an old history of conflict between the political class and the judiciary with CPI(M) State secretary at one point of time railed publicly against then Justice Amitabha lala asking him to quit Kolkata for which he had to face contempt proceedings.
Subsequently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also triggered a controversy making a general observation in the State Assembly questioning the way how justice was sold.