Written by: Express News Service
2 min readKolkataNov 14, 2013 05:00 AM IST
First published on: Nov 14, 2013 at 05:00 AM IST
THE Calcutta High Court Wednesday directed the state government to file an affidavit on the petition of Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra,which alleges that the state government did not pay him compensation of Rs 50,000 as recommended by the West Bengal State Human Rights Commission.
Mahapatra was arrested for circulating cartoon of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee using the email of a housing society.
The state human rights commission had taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and recommended the state government to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation for the harassment faced by Mahapatra at the hands of the police.
Thereafter,the state government had sent an action taken report to the human rights commission stating it would not pay any compensation to Mahapatra.
Government pleader Ashoke Banerjee argued that Mahapatra was arrested for the sake of his own safety as he could have been attacked by people who were angry over Mamata’s cartoon.
Besides,he said,it was not binding on the state government to pay compensation to Mahapatra as recommended by the rights panel. Justice Sanjib Banerjee,too,had pointed out that the state human rights commission only had the right to recommend.
Justice Banejree,however,wanted to know why would the state government not accept the recommendation of the rights panel. He then directed the state government to file affidavit in three weeks.
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