When ‘lawyer’ Mamata took to courts: Before SC fight, what were other cases

By the time she got her law degree from Jogesh Chandra College of Law affiliated to Calcutta University in 1982, Banerjee was already deeply involved in student politics, including as a regular campaigner for the Chhatra Parishad, the Congress’s student wing.

In 1983, she was inducted into the Youth Congress, but just a year later, in 1984, a political row erupted over the murder of a school headmaster in Dakshin Dinajpur district’s Kumarganj. When an agitation against the murder flared up in Kumarganj, the Youth Congress joined in and Banerjee was roped in to organise a movement.

But when several protesting Youth Congress workers were arrested, Banerjee stepped in as a lawyer, seeking bail for them in a Balurghat court in the district.

Then local Youth Congress leader Shankar Chakraborty, who went on to become a Cabinet minister under CM Banerjee, recalled the 1984 case, saying, “Mamata Banerjee asked me to move the court. Then she herself went to the court with me. She told me, ‘Shankar da, bring me a black gown’. I was a bit surprised. Then she told me that she has a degree as a lawyer. After that, wearing a black gown, she started arguing the case with me in court. Finally, the court granted bail to the arrested Youth Congress workers.”

With her political career gathering steam, Banerjee’s next appearance in court came nearly a decade later. On July 21, 1993, Banerjee was leading a Youth Congress protest to the Writers’ Building in Kolkata, which housed the state secretariat, to demand mandatory photo IDs for voters. However, the agitation turned violent, with the police resorting to tear gas shells and lathi charge. As the chaos grew, police opened fire, killing 13 people. Later, 40 Youth Congress workers were arrested allegedly on false charges. The day is now commemorated by the TMC every year as Martyr’s Day.

At that time, Banerjee was a Union Minister of State in the then P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government. By then, her influence in the party had been waning, particularly after she lost the election for the Bengal Youth Congress president’s post in 1992. But the firing incident came as a turning point for Banerjee, which eventually led to her breaking away from the Congress and launch the TMC in 1998.

After the Kolkata firing, Banerjee staunchly backed the 40 arrested Congress workers, appearing on their behalf before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kolkata’s Bankshall Court for their bail application in July 1996.

TMC leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Shebhashish Bhattacharya, himself a lawyer, recalls another of Banerjee’s stints in court. “I can remember that during the 1990s, Banerjee also argued in an Alipore court (in Kolkata). She was then a Youth Congress leader. The incident was when the Regent Park police station was ransacked and our workers, including late Pankaj Banerjee, were arrested. Mamata Banerjee argued for their bail.”

In July 1997, Banerjee also argued in a district court at Chinsurah in Hooghly. After one Haladhar Mondol died in a police firing in Guptipara, Banerjee argued on behalf of Mondol’s family in the court just a day after the incident.

Shebhashish Bhattacharya said, “Mamata Banerjee has always stood up for the common people of Bengal. Even after she assumed the role of Chief Minister, she never forgot her identity as a fighter. On Wednesday (in the Supreme Court), we again saw the same Mamata Banerjee, who bravely argued for the poor in Bengal, fighting against the Election Commission.”

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the EC on a plea filed by Banerjee challenging the ongoing SIR in the poll-bound state while alleging large-scale disenfranchisement of genuine voters.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: “Mamata Banerjee has always stood by the people and today she made history and snatched a moral victory for the people. She went to Delhi to restore the rights of the people to vote, which the EC is trying to snatch.”