West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today criticised a section of the media for distorting her statement on the judiciary in the Assembly last Tuesday,saying she had merely spoken about a value-based judiciary. "Both types of people are there in the world. There are good people and there are bad people. All political leaders are corrupt,it is not that." "Similarly,all judges are corrupt,I have never said this. Judges are not corrupt. Lawyers are not corrupt. I had not said this. I had spoken about value-based Judiciary,need for judicial reforms,political reforms,administrative reforms,which were lacking since Independence,and the need for state funding of elections. If that is wrong,then I will repeat it a thousand times," she said while responding to media queries at the state secretariat here today. Banerjee said that what she had said inside the Assembly had been recorded. "Why I will speak here. I told that there is a need for electoral reforms and state funding to help curb corruption". Pointing at the media,she said,"Why are you engaged in playing dirty games? It may be that there will be defamation against you if you distort. I have the freedom to express my views". Defending her earlier remarks on valuable time spent by DMs,principal secretaries of various departments and SPs for appearances before committees and authorities,she said "if they were called for five days a week for 15 hours,then how they would find the time to do the work for the people. "I spoke about pendency is a tendency. You can make out what I mean. Lakhs of cases are pending in court. People do not get justice. In Bengal,the government has cleared one lakh cases through Lok Adalats in the past one year",she said. Calcutta HC asks media houses to file affidavits on Mamata's comment Taking up a plea for contempt proceedings against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly making derogatory remarks about judiciary,the Calcutta High Court today directed two newspapers and two channels to file affidavits on the authenticity of their reports on her speech. On the plea by senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya,who was the Mayor of Kolkata and a CPI(M) leader,a division bench comprising justices K J Sengupta and A K Mondal directed two national English dailies and two vernacular news channels to file affidavits within three weeks on the authenticity of their reports on a speech made by Banerjee on August 14. The issue of whether any contempt proceeding would be initiated against the chief minister would come up after examination of the affidavits by the court,lawyers said. The matter would come up for hearing again after four weeks. Bhattacharya made the oral plea before the bench praying for suo motu contempt proceedings against Banerjee,stating that the chief minister had during a seminar in the Assembly on Tuesday allegedly made derogatory remarks about judiciary. He also submitted two CDs containing the recordings of television reports and also copies of the two newspapers before the court and sought suo motu action against Banerjee. In the morning,a section of lawyers led by counsel Subrata Mukhopadhyay had moved the court of Chief Justice J N Patel and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi seeking suo motu contempt proceedings against the Chief Minister. The bench refused to take up the matter suo motu and said that he could file a contempt petition before the court and the matter would be heard accordingly. The Chief Justice's bench had observed that the chief minister had expressed her personal opinion and the judiciary was not disturbed at any such alleged comments.
