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Ruckus inside Calcutta HC after TMC minister told to face CBI in recruitment scam
The commotion reached such levels that West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar sent a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee to have an interaction.
A commotion broke out inside the court room of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the Calcutta high court on Wednesday when a section of advocates forcibly tried to stop others from entering the courtroom.
This comes a day after the single judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay ordered Partha Chatterjee, a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet and a veteran Trinamool Congress leader, to face the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an ongoing probe related to a recruitment scam in government-aided schools.
The commotion reached such levels that West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar sent a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee to have an interaction. While Chief Justice of Calcutta high court Prakash Shrivastava summoned the high court’s registrar general, he also held a meeting with veteran advocates of the high court and the bar association.
“A section of pro-Trinamool Congress lawyers tried to obstruct others from entering the courtroom. This is unprecedented. The chief justice held a meeting with veteran advocates,” said Arunava Ghosh, president of the bar association of Calcutta high court, who attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, however, a division bench of Justice Subrata Talukder and Justice A K Mukherjee stayed the order of the single bench for four weeks providing some relief to Chatterjee in the recruitment scam investigation.
“Deeply concerned at extremely disturbing and unprecedented, worrisome scenario unfolding today in the hallowed precincts of high court at Calcutta as also the recent spate of heinous crime against women and continual deteriorating law and order in the state,” Dhankhar wrote in his letter to the Banerjee.
On Wednesday morning a section of advocates urged others to boycott the bench of Justice Gangopadhyay. Some of the advocate blocked the door and staged a sit-in demonstration outside the court-room while trying to stop other advocates. A commotion broke out.
“On Tuesday we had passed a resolution in a general body meeting that we would abstain from appearing in the courtroom of Justice Gangopadhyay,” said Achintya Banerjee, one of the advocates who signed the resolution passed in the general body meeting.
The single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay had recently ordered CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of assistant teachers and group-D staff. The bench had even raised questions its earlier orders of CBI probe were earlier stayed on two occasions by the division bench.
“The governor always remains worried. Such a worried Governor can hardly be seen in any other state. This a disease and whether there is any medicine to it only scientists and doctors may say. I can’t comment,” said Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, TMC MP in Rajya Sabha.
Various benches of the Calcutta high court had ordered CBI investigations in a series of cases in West Bengal over the few weeks starting from Birbhum massacre, murder of Congress councillor Tapan Kandu, recruitment scams in schools, Hanskhali rape case among others.
“The governor is doing his responsibility and that’s why he has urged the chief minister to have an interaction. He has certain limitations as he is bound by the Constitution. He is doing whatever he can within the boundaries of Constitution,” said Dilip Ghosh, BJP National vice president.
