• Thursday, March 28, 2024

News

Court fines Mamata Banerjee Rs 5 lakh for seeking recusal of judge ‘close to BJP’

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee (Photo by DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

THE Calcutta High Court on Wednesday (7) fined West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Rs 5 lakh ($6,694) for seeking recusal of Justice Kaushik Chanda from her Nandigram election petition over the latter’s alleged links with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The judge also rejected the petition of Banerjee but decided to step away from the case on his own personal discretion and released it from his bench, said informed sources.

In an order, the court said the chief minister was facing the fine for painting the judiciary “in a bad light”. The court added that the penalty amount paid by the politician will be used for the families of lawyers who have been hit by Covid-19.

‘Calculative, psychological, offensive attempt’
“Such calculative, psychological and offensive attempt to seek recusal need to be firmly repulsed and a cost of ₹ 5 lakh is imposed upon petitioner,” Justice Chanda said in the order.

While saying that he was not able to convince himself that there is a “conflict of interest”, Justice Chanda still recused himself from the case so that “trouble-mongers” do not get an opportunity to keep the controversy running. “It will be contrary to the interests of justice if such unwarranted problem continues along with trial,” the judge said while stepping away from the case.

Earlier, Banerjee, the supremo of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), had written to the acting chief justice of the high court in June mentioning her objection to Justice Chanda’s appointment as a permanent judge over a “likelihood of bias”, citing his associations with the BJP when he was a lawyer.

Justice Chanda said judges vote and harbour a political point of view but it was wrong on Banerjee’s part to think that a judge cannot discharge his duty as one just because he votes for some party.

Banerjee’s petition challenges the result of the assembly election in Nandigram where she lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, her former aide who changed the saffron camp last December, by less than 2,000 votes. Her own loss was the lone disappointment in an otherwise landslide victory that the TMC registered to form government in the state for the third successive time.

Related Stories

Loading