'Unacceptable': Calcutta HC directs action against remarks against judge
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Kolkata: Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam has instructed the Kolkata Police to identify individuals who made derogatory remarks about Justice Biswajit Basu during protests against senior advocate and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya.
These demonstrations occurred last week outside Bhattacharya’s chamber on the court premises.
The protests were linked to Bhattacharya's arguments during the school job scam trial, which protesters believe influenced the final judgement, leading to adverse court orders and the termination of jobs for numerous teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools.
Protesters also directed derogatory language at Justice Basu due to his critical observations in some of these cases.
On Monday, some members of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association drew the attention of the High Court’s division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chattopadhyay to the entire development and also filed a contempt of court petition.
While admitting the petition, the Chief Justice observed that such actions against the court and judges were simply unacceptable. Justice Sivagnanam also observed that there were options for approaching higher courts and higher benches against any order or verdict.
Thereafter, Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam instructed the Kolkata Police to identify those involved in last week's actions and directed the city police commissioner, Manoj Kumar Verma, to provide a report detailing how such attacks on the judiciary and courts occurred despite police presence.
The contempt-of-court petition highlighted that the violent protests outside Bhattacharya’s chamber last week had instilled a sense of panic among advocates practising at the Calcutta High Court.
“Orders prohibiting assembly of more than a specific number of persons are imposed in the entire area in the vicinity of the Calcutta High Court. In such a situation, how could the police allow the gathering of the crowd that protested last week? While the demonstrations were going on, the policemen posted in the area acted like puppets and refrained from taking any action for almost four hours. Justice Basu was maligned during those protests,” one of the petitioners argued.
(inputs from IANS)