Protect judiciary: Governor to govt

“The Governor took stock of the situation in the Calcutta High Court. During the meeting, he told them that everything possible should be done to uphold the dignity and security of the judiciary,” PTI quoted an unnamed source.

During the meeting, he also told the three officers that “the judiciary cannot be intimidated”. He was informed by the officials that the state “believes that no stones should be unturned to protect the judiciary”.

Meanwhile, Senior advocate and CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha member, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, condemned Monday’s incident and urged Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava to seek an explanation from the protesting lawyers. “Justice Mantha has taken a serious view of the protests. He has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and has referred the matter to be placed before a division bench to decide the issue,” said Bhattacharya.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who had to face similar protests last April after he ordered a CBI probe into teachers’ recruitment scam in government schools, said such incidents were aimed at “terrorising” the judiciary. “I won’t take the name of any courtroom. But it is true that attempts are being made to terrorise the judiciary system in West Bengal. Our judiciary system is not so weak that it will crumble under such attempts. I have been a practising lawyer at the High Court for 23 years and I have been a judge of this court for five years, I have never seen an incident like this before,” Justice Gangopadhyay told reporters on the sidelines of an event.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly also condemned the lawyers’ protest. “It is very common that one might not like an order of a single bench. There is a provision to make an appeal against that order in a higher court and especially in Supreme Court. But a judge cannot be threatened like this. This is nothing but an attack on the judiciary. It will have a long-time negative impact on the judiciary system,” said Ganguly.

The lawyers were agitating over some of the orders passed by Justice Mantha, including one passed in December last that gave protection to the Leader of Opposition in Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari directing the state police not to register any more FIRs against him without the High Court’s permission.

Justice Mantha had also stayed all the FIRs referred to in a petition by Adhikari, wherein he claimed that 26 FIRs had been registered against him in different police stations of the state to prevent him from performing his function as a people’s representative at the instance of the ruling dispensation in the state. Earlier, Justice Mantha had removed protection granted to Maneka Gambhir, the sister-in-law of TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in a money laundering case.

On Monday’s incident, Leader of Opposition Adhikari said, “There is no rule of law in Bengal. The incident once again proves our claims. There were also no police in the court. If they were adequately posted, then this incident would have been avoided.”

The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, tried to downplay the development. “Sometimes such incidents take place in various courtrooms. Sometimes, differences of opinion are formed over some issues which lead to such incidents. If issues are resolved collectively then this kind of unwanted situation does not arise,” said TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.

With PTI Inputs